EOW 7.1.1x - v3 Training

Essential of Wizard
x-Wizard 7.1.1.x Training Manual
Optimi Corp
Acknowledgements
Notices Copyright 2007 Optimi Corporation All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, translated into foreign languages, or transmitted by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopied, or otherwise recorded without written permission from Optimi Corporation. Print Date: October 2007 Trademarks MapInfo is a registered trademark of MapInfo Corp. Pentium is a registered trademark of Intel Corp. Adobe is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Inc. Windows NT, 2000, XP, 2003 is a registered trademark of Microsoft. iDEN is a registered trademark of Motorola. Viper and Nitro is a registered trademark of Agilent Technologies Planet is a registered trademark of MSI Inc, Cellopt is a registered trademark of ComOpt. DeskJet , Design Jet, and LaserJet are registered trademarks of Hewlett Packard. All other trademarks inferred or mentioned are properties of their respective holders. Liabilities The remedies provided herein are the sole and exclusive responsibility of the buyer. Optimi Corporation will not be liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages, whether based on contract, tort or any other legal theory. Technology License Notice The software(s) described in this manual are furnished under a license agreement, and may be used only within the terms of that agreement.
Essentials of x-Wizard Copyright 2006 Optimi Corporation
Optimi Corp
Essentials of x-Wizard Training

Welcome to the Essentials of x-Wizard training class offered by Optimi Corporation. This training manual teaches you how to use x-Wizard, a powerful planning program that helps perform daily tasks associated with wireless system design and optimization. As the title of this course indicates, this is the Essentials of x-Wizard class. This course is not designed to delve into every aspect of the program; it is designed to offer a functional overview and provide a good working knowledge of x-Wizard and its capabilities. This course wa s created for engineers that are new to x-Wizard. To learn more about different training available for specific technologies, contact an Optimi representative or e-mail us at support@optimi.com.Those that complete this training will know how to use x-Wizard to dramatically increase efficiency and sharpen accuracy in network planning. If at any time you require more information about the x-Wizard program or its structure, please feel free to contact us. If any problems occur when you try to run x-Wizard, we recommend you first try to resolve the difficulties using the information provided in this manual or the x-Wizard program help. If you are unable to resolve a specific difficulty or problem, our technical support team is available to assist you by phone during our normal business hours or you may send correspondence at any time by email. Phone: Main Number: Europe only: Toll Free Numbers US only: Argentina: Australia: Brazil: Chile: Mexico: Email to: Web: User Forums 1-404-474-3479 +34-952-028-059 1-866-OPTIMI1 (1-866-678-4641) 0-800-666-2164 1-800-62-8160 080-089-16-252 1230-020-8360 001-866-275-5779
support@optimi.com www.optimi.com support.optimi.com/forums Live On-Line Chat
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1 WORKING WITH PROJECTS......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 DEFINE A X-WIZARD PROJECT..................................................................................................................... 5 1.2 OPENING AN EXISTING PROJECT.................................................................................................................. 5 1.3 THE USER ID FIELD.................................................................................................................................... 5 1.4 UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENT DATABASE PROJECTS....................................................................................6 1.5 POINTING PROJECTS TO THE CORRECT PATH.............................................................................................. 7 1.6 SAVING PROJECTS AND THE SAVE PROJECT AS OPTION............................................................................8 1.7 COPYING PROJECTS................................................................................................................................... 9 1.8 CLOSING PROJECTS.................................................................................................................................... 9 1.9 CREATE A NEW PROJECT............................................................................................................................ 9 1.10 UPDATING MASTER PROJECTS................................................................................................................ 10 1.11 WHAT IS A X-WIZARD PROJECT?............................................................................................................. 13 1.12 THE EDIT PROJECT DIALOG..................................................................................................................... 13 1.13 BASIC PROJECT DATA............................................................................................................................. 14 1.14 RF PARAMETERS.................................................................................................................................... 15 1.15 TECHNOLOGY SPECIFIC DATA.................................................................................................................. 16 1.16 FREQUENCY TABLE................................................................................................................................. 17 1.17 PERMISSIONS.......................................................................................................................................... 17 1.18 PROJECT SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................... 18 2 X-WIZARD LAYOUT AND NAVIGATION..................................................................................................... 19 2.1 WINDOW LAYOUTS.................................................................................................................................... 20 2.2 THE VIEW WINDOW ............................................................................................................................... 22 2.3 THE LEGEND WINDOW ........................................................................................................................ 22 2.4 STATUS BAR............................................................................................................................................. 22 2.5 THE TOOL BARS....................................................................................................................................... 23 2.6 CUSTOMIZATION OF THE TOOLBAR............................................................................................................. 26 2.7 MENU BAR (FILE, EDIT, VIEW)............................................................................................................... 27 2.8 X-WIZARD SHORTCUT KEYS ..................................................................................................................... 27 3 TERRAIN FILES AND THE BIN GRID........................................................................................................... 28 3.1 THE BIN GRID........................................................................................................................................... 33 3.2 TERRAIN FILES.......................................................................................................................................... 33 3.3 LOADING TERRAIN..................................................................................................................................... 33 3.4 SELECTING TERRAIN................................................................................................................................. 34 3.5 VIEWING AND DISPLAYING TERRAIN........................................................................................................... 35
Optimi Corp 3.6 TERRAIN IN THE MAP VIEW ....................................................................................................................... 37 4 THE X-WIZARD HIERARCHY, ENTITY STRUCTURE, AND STATES .......................................................39 4.1 THE ENTITY HIERARCHY............................................................................................................................ 43 4.2 PROJECT MANAGEMENT USING THE ENTITY HIERARCHY STRUCTURE..........................................................43 4.3 STATUS TYPES......................................................................................................................................... 44 4.4 WORKING AND MANAGING STATUS TYPES.................................................................................................. 45 4.5 USING COLORS TO DISPLAY ACTIVITY/VISIBILITY STATUS OF ENTITIES.........................................................46 4.6 THE EDIT ACTIVE MENU ITEM..................................................................................................................... 48 4.7 DISPLAYING CELL SITES USING STATUSES ACTIVE BY STATUS.................................................................49 4.8 DELETING CELL SITES USING STATUSES DELETE BY STATUS...................................................................50 4.9 USING ACTIVE SETS.................................................................................................................................. 51 4.10 USING GROUPS...................................................................................................................................... 51 5 USING THE WIRELESS EXPLORER WITH ENTITIES.................................................................................55 5.1 INTRODUCTION TO THE WIRELESS EXPLORER............................................................................................. 59 5.2 CONTROLLING THE WIRELESS EXPLORER DISPLAY.....................................................................................61 5.3 CONTEXT MENUS...................................................................................................................................... 63 5.4 THE FIND UTILITY..................................................................................................................................... 65 6 EDITING THE ENTITIES WITHIN A PROJECT.............................................................................................67 6.1 EDITING THE ENTITIES WITHIN A PROJECT.................................................................................................. 71 6.2 CREATING, EDITING, COPYING, DELETING ENTITIES....................................................................................72 6.3 THE EDIT CELL AND SELECTIVE CELL EDIT DIALOG....................................................................................73 6.4 EDITING CELLS......................................................................................................................................... 75 6.5 THE TX/RX SPREADSHEET........................................................................................................................ 78 7 X-WIZARD MASS EDITING TOOLS............................................................................................................. 92 7.1 ABOUT MASS EDITING TOOLS.................................................................................................................... 96 7.2 QUERY AND EDIT...................................................................................................................................... 96 7.3 IMPORT EXPORT PROJECT DATA TOOL...................................................................................................... 99 7.4 USING THE IMPORT / EXPORT PROJECT DATA FIELDS FOR CREATING CUSTOM SITE REPORTS..................101 7.5 OLAP FUNCTIONALITY ........................................................................................................................... 103 8 COMMON ANALYSIS DATA AND BASIC COVERAGE.............................................................................107 8.1 COMMON ANALYSIS DATA....................................................................................................................... 111 8.2 COVERAGE ANALYSIS.............................................................................................................................. 116 8.3 ENTITY DISPLAY RESOLUTION.................................................................................................................. 117 8.4 DISPLAY BAND COLORS.......................................................................................................................... 118 8.5 ANALYSIS SPECIFIC BAND COLORS PROJECT LEVEL DISPLAYS. ...............................................................118 8.6 QUICK COVERAGE USING THE SHOW COVERAGE MOUSE MODE BUTTON....................................................120 5
Optimi Corp 8.7 THE LEGEND........................................................................................................................................... 120 9 X-WIZARD DISPLAY OPTIONS AND VISUAL CONTROLS......................................................................123 9.1 WHAT IS CONTROLLABLE IN THE X-WIZARD DISPLAY? ..............................................................................124 9.2 MAP OPTIONS ....................................................................................................................................... 124 9.3 MAP ANNOTATIONS................................................................................................................................. 142 9.4 ASSIGNING VALUES TO OBJECTS............................................................................................................. 146 9.5 AREA STATISTICS ................................................................................................................................... 149 9.6 ZOOM..................................................................................................................................................... 150 9.7 COLOR SCHEMES................................................................................................................................... 151 9.8 CHANGING FONT..................................................................................................................................... 153 10 SPECIALIZED COVERAGE ANALYSES................................................................................................. 154 10.1 OVERLAPPING COVERAGE .................................................................................................................... 158 10.2 REVERSE LINK...................................................................................................................................... 158 10.3 NUMBER OF SERVERS........................................................................................................................... 159 10.4 PATH LOSS........................................................................................................................................... 159 10.5 MOST LIKELY SERVER........................................................................................................................... 159 10.6 JOINT PROBABILITY............................................................................................................................... 159 10.7 LINE OF SIGHT..................................................................................................................................... 160 10.8 PREVIOUSLY RUN ANALYSIS.................................................................................................................. 161 11 MEASURED DATA INTEGRATION .......................................................................................................... 163 11.1 MEASURED DATA FUNCTIONALITY......................................................................................................... 164 11.2 IMPORTING MEASURED DATA................................................................................................................. 164 11.3 VIEWING MEASURED DATA................................................................................................................... 166 11.4 FILTER OR EDIT MEASURED DATA........................................................................................................ 170 11.5 MEASURED DATA ASSOCIATION............................................................................................................ 171 11.6 MEASURED DATA SHIFT ....................................................................................................................... 174 11.7 COMPARING MEASUREMENTS TO PREDICTIONS......................................................................................174 11.8 BATCHED PROPAGATION MODEL OPTIMIZATION......................................................................................177 11.9 MEASURED VS PREDICTED ANALYSIS.................................................................................................... 180 11.10 MODEL AVERAGING ............................................................................................................................ 181 11.11 EVALUATING THE RESULTS.................................................................................................................. 183 11.12 MERGING OF MEASURED DATA INTO PREDICTIONS ..............................................................................183 11.13 REMOVE MEASURED DATA ASSOCIATION............................................................................................185 185 12 CLUTTER ADJUSTMENTS....................................................................................................................... 186 12.1 WHAT ARE CLUTTER ADJUSTMENTS?..................................................................................................... 190
Optimi Corp 12.2 LOADING THE CLUTTER FILE.................................................................................................................. 190 12.3 CREATING OR EDITING A CLUTTER ADJUSTMENT FILE.............................................................................190 12.4 SELECTING CLUTTER AND CLUTTER ADJUSTMENT FILES.........................................................................192 12.5 OPTIMIZING CLUTTER VALUES WITH DRIVE TEST DATA...........................................................................192 12.6 EDITING THE CLUTTER FILE................................................................................................................... 195 12.7 DISPLAYING
THE
CLUTTER FILE............................................................................................................. 195
13 CHANNEL PLANNING.............................................................................................................................. 197 13.1 CHANNEL PLANNING IN X-WIZARD ......................................................................................................... 198 13.2 CHANNEL PLANNING TERMINOLOGY....................................................................................................... 198 13.3 ASSIGNING FREQUENCY TABLES............................................................................................................ 198 13.4 EDITING FREQUENCY TABLES................................................................................................................ 200 13.5 CHANNEL PLAN TEMPLATES.................................................................................................................. 202 13.6 ASSIGNING A CHANNEL TEMPLATE......................................................................................................... 203 13.7 SELECTING A CHANNEL PLAN................................................................................................................ 203 13.8 HOW TO ASSIGN
CHANNELS................................................................................................................... 204
13.9 SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR IDEN PROJECTS IDEN CHANNEL TEMPLATES..............................208 13.10 SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR GSM TECHNOLOGY.............................................................................209 13.11 PN AND SCRAMBLE CODE PLANS FOR CDMA TECHNOLOGIES.............................................................210 13.12 DISPLAYING CHANNELS AND CHANNEL OPTIONS...................................................................................211 13.13 DISPLAYING CHANNELS BY CHANNEL OR TRANSMITTER........................................................................213 13.14 CHANNEL PLAN UTILITIES ................................................................................................................... 215 13.15 IMPORTING CHANNELS......................................................................................................................... 216 13.16 INTERACTIVE CHANNEL PLANNING........................................................................................................ 219 14 INTERFERENCE ANALYSES IN X-WIZARD...........................................................................................231 14.1 INTERFERENCE ANALYSIS...................................................................................................................... 232 14.2 SERVER BY BEST C/I ....................................................................................................................... 232 14.3 INTERFERENCE ANALYSIS...................................................................................................................... 232 14.4 CHANNEL OPTIONS RESTRICTION OF INTERFERENCE..............................................................................238 15 SMART ANALYSIS................................................................................................................................... 240 15.1 INTRODUCTION TO SMART ANALYSIS...................................................................................................... 244 15.2 DEFINING YOUR ANALYSIS REQUIREMENTS............................................................................................ 244 15.3 THE INTERFACE.................................................................................................................................... 244 15.4 INTERPRETING THE EVALUATION RESULTS ............................................................................................248 16 NEIGHBOR LISTS.................................................................................................................................... 250 16.1 NEIGHBOR LISTS................................................................................................................................... 251 16.2 AUTOMATIC NEIGHBOR LIST GENERATION ............................................................................................. 251
Optimi Corp 16.3 GEOGRAPHIC DISPLAY OF NEIGHBOR RELATIONS...................................................................................253 16.4 NEIGHBOR LIST REPORTS..................................................................................................................... 255 16.5 IMPORTING NEIGHBOR LISTS ................................................................................................................ 256 17 APPENDICES........................................................................................................................................... 260 17.1 APPENDIX I SERVER CALCULATION METHODS AND PROPAGATION DETAILS..............................................265 17.2 APPENDIX II HIERARCHAL CELL STRUCTURING (HCS) DETAILS ..............................................................265 17.3 APPENDIX III TURBO (RADIAL) VS. STANDARD PROPAGATION CALCULATION METHODS.............................271 17.4 APPENDIX IV TOWERS AND LOCATION BASED DATA...............................................................................272 17.5 APPENDIX V FCC FUNCTIONALITY......................................................................................................... 277 17.6 APPENDIX VI PRINTING AND PLOTTING................................................................................................... 281 17.7 APPENDIX VII ADDING AND USING REPEATERS.......................................................................................287 17.8 APPENDIX VIII BEHIND THE SCENES AND PROJECT OPTIMIZATIONS.........................................................291 17.9 APPENDIX IX UNDERSTANDING USER PERMISSIONS AND CHANGE PETITIONS..........................................304 17.10 APPENDIX X UNDERSTANDING HOW THE ANALYSIS MANAGER FUNCTIONALITY WORKS............................312 17.11 APPENDIX XI COVERAGE QUALITY IMPACT ANALYSIS USABILITY............................................................313 17.12 APPENDIX XII PROFILE UTILITY FUNCTION............................................................................................ 319
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Working with Projects
1.1DEFINE A X-WIZARD PROJECT.................................................................................................................. 5 1.2OPENING AN EXISTING PROJECT............................................................................................................. 5 1.3THE USER ID FIELD..................................................................................................................................... 5 1.4UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENT DATABASE PROJECTS........................................................................6 1.5POINTING PROJECTS TO THE CORRECT PATH......................................................................................7 1.6SAVING PROJECTS AND THE SAVE PROJECT AS OPTION................................................................8 1.7COPYING PROJECTS................................................................................................................................... 9 1.8CLOSING PROJECTS................................................................................................................................... 9 1.9CREATE A NEW PROJECT.......................................................................................................................... 9 1.10UPDATING MASTER PROJECTS............................................................................................................ 10 1.11WHAT IS A X-WIZARD PROJECT?.......................................................................................................... 13 1.12THE EDIT PROJECT DIALOG.................................................................................................................. 13 1.13BASIC PROJECT DATA............................................................................................................................ 14 1.14RF PARAMETERS..................................................................................................................................... 15 1.15TECHNOLOGY SPECIFIC DATA.............................................................................................................. 16 1.16FREQUENCY TABLE................................................................................................................................ 17 1.17PERMISSIONS........................................................................................................................................... 17 1.18PROJECT SUMMARY .............................................................................................................................. 18 2.1WINDOW LAYOUTS.................................................................................................................................... 20 2.2THE VIEW WINDOW .................................................................................................................................. 22 2.3THE LEGEND WINDOW .......................................................................................................................... 22 2.4STATUS BAR.............................................................................................................................................. 22 2.5THE TOOL BARS........................................................................................................................................ 23 2.6CUSTOMIZATION OF THE TOOLBAR....................................................................................................... 26 2.7MENU BAR (FILE, EDIT, VIEW).............................................................................................................. 27 2.8X-WIZARD SHORTCUT KEYS ................................................................................................................... 27 3.1THE BIN GRID............................................................................................................................................. 33 3.2TERRAIN FILES.......................................................................................................................................... 33 3.3LOADING TERRAIN.................................................................................................................................... 33 3.4SELECTING TERRAIN................................................................................................................................ 34 3.5VIEWING AND DISPLAYING TERRAIN...................................................................................................... 35 3.6TERRAIN IN THE MAP VIEW ..................................................................................................................... 37 4.1THE ENTITY HIERARCHY.......................................................................................................................... 43 4.2PROJECT MANAGEMENT USING THE ENTITY HIERARCHY STRUCTURE..........................................43 4.3STATUS TYPES.......................................................................................................................................... 44 1
Optimi Corp 4.4WORKING AND MANAGING STATUS TYPES..........................................................................................45 4.5USING COLORS TO DISPLAY ACTIVITY/VISIBILITY STATUS OF ENTITIES.........................................46 4.6THE EDIT ACTIVE MENU ITEM.................................................................................................................. 48 4.7DISPLAYING CELL SITES USING STATUSES ACTIVE BY STATUS...................................................49 4.8DELETING CELL SITES USING STATUSES DELETE BY STATUS......................................................50 4.9USING ACTIVE SETS.................................................................................................................................. 51 4.10USING GROUPS........................................................................................................................................ 51 5.1INTRODUCTION TO THE WIRELESS EXPLORER....................................................................................59 5.2CONTROLLING THE WIRELESS EXPLORER DISPLAY..........................................................................61 5.3CONTEXT MENUS...................................................................................................................................... 63 5.4THE FIND UTILITY...................................................................................................................................... 65 6.1EDITING THE ENTITIES WITHIN A PROJECT........................................................................................... 71 6.2CREATING, EDITING, COPYING, DELETING ENTITIES...........................................................................72 6.3THE EDIT CELL AND SELECTIVE CELL EDIT DIALOG...........................................................................73 6.4EDITING CELLS.......................................................................................................................................... 75 6.5THE TX/RX SPREADSHEET....................................................................................................................... 78 7.1ABOUT MASS EDITING TOOLS................................................................................................................. 96 7.2QUERY AND EDIT....................................................................................................................................... 96 7.3IMPORT EXPORT PROJECT DATA TOOL................................................................................................99 7.4USING THE IMPORT / EXPORT PROJECT DATA FIELDS FOR CREATING CUSTOM SITE REPORTS ........................................................................................................................................................................ 101 7.5OLAP FUNCTIONALITY ........................................................................................................................... 103 8.1COMMON ANALYSIS DATA..................................................................................................................... 111 8.2COVERAGE ANALYSIS............................................................................................................................ 116 8.3ENTITY DISPLAY RESOLUTION.............................................................................................................. 117 8.4DISPLAY BAND COLORS........................................................................................................................ 118 8.5ANALYSIS SPECIFIC BAND COLORS PROJECT LEVEL DISPLAYS. .................................................118 8.6QUICK COVERAGE USING THE SHOW COVERAGE MOUSE MODE BUTTON...................................120 8.7THE LEGEND............................................................................................................................................ 120 9.1WHAT IS CONTROLLABLE IN THE X-WIZARD DISPLAY? ...................................................................124 9.2MAP OPTIONS ........................................................................................................................................ 124 9.3MAP ANNOTATIONS................................................................................................................................ 142 9.4ASSIGNING VALUES TO OBJECTS........................................................................................................ 146 9.5AREA STATISTICS ................................................................................................................................... 149 9.6ZOOM......................................................................................................................................................... 150 9.7 COLOR SCHEMES................................................................................................................................... 151 9.8CHANGING FONT..................................................................................................................................... 153 10.1OVERLAPPING COVERAGE ................................................................................................................. 158 10.2REVERSE LINK....................................................................................................................................... 158 Essentials of x-Wizard 2
Copyright 2006 Optimi Corporation
Optimi Corp 10.3NUMBER OF SERVERS.......................................................................................................................... 159 10.4PATH LOSS............................................................................................................................................. 159 10.5MOST LIKELY SERVER.......................................................................................................................... 159 10.6JOINT PROBABILITY.............................................................................................................................. 159 10.7LINE OF SIGHT....................................................................................................................................... 160 10.8PREVIOUSLY RUN ANALYSIS............................................................................................................... 161 11.1 MEASURED DATA FUNCTIONALITY................................................................................................... 164 11.2IMPORTING MEASURED DATA............................................................................................................. 164 11.3 VIEWING MEASURED DATA................................................................................................................. 166 11.4 FILTER OR EDIT MEASURED DATA.................................................................................................... 170 11.5 MEASURED DATA ASSOCIATION....................................................................................................... 171 11.6MEASURED DATA SHIFT ...................................................................................................................... 174 11.7COMPARING MEASUREMENTS TO PREDICTIONS.............................................................................174 11.8BATCHED PROPAGATION MODEL OPTIMIZATION............................................................................177 11.9MEASURED VS PREDICTED ANALYSIS............................................................................................... 180 11.10MODEL AVERAGING ........................................................................................................................... 181 11.11EVALUATING THE RESULTS.............................................................................................................. 183 11.12MERGING OF MEASURED DATA INTO PREDICTIONS ....................................................................183 11.13 REMOVE MEASURED DATA ASSOCIATION.....................................................................................185 ....................................................................................................................................................................... 185 12.1WHAT ARE CLUTTER ADJUSTMENTS?............................................................................................... 190 12.2LOADING THE CLUTTER FILE.............................................................................................................. 190 12.3CREATING OR EDITING A CLUTTER ADJUSTMENT FILE..................................................................190 12.4SELECTING CLUTTER AND CLUTTER ADJUSTMENT FILES............................................................192 12.5OPTIMIZING CLUTTER VALUES WITH DRIVE TEST DATA................................................................192 12.6EDITING THE CLUTTER FILE................................................................................................................ 195 12.7DISPLAYING THE CLUTTER FILE......................................................................................................... 195 13.1CHANNEL PLANNING IN X-WIZARD .................................................................................................... 198 13.2CHANNEL PLANNING TERMINOLOGY.................................................................................................198 13.3ASSIGNING FREQUENCY TABLES....................................................................................................... 198 13.4EDITING FREQUENCY TABLES............................................................................................................ 200 13.5CHANNEL PLAN TEMPLATES............................................................................................................... 202 13.6ASSIGNING A CHANNEL TEMPLATE................................................................................................... 203 13.7SELECTING A CHANNEL PLAN............................................................................................................ 203 13.8HOW TO ASSIGN CHANNELS............................................................................................................... 204 13.9SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR IDEN PROJECTS IDEN CHANNEL TEMPLATES..............208 13.10SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR GSM TECHNOLOGY...................................................................209 13.11PN AND SCRAMBLE CODE PLANS FOR CDMA TECHNOLOGIES..................................................210 3
Optimi Corp 13.12DISPLAYING CHANNELS AND CHANNEL OPTIONS.........................................................................211 13.13DISPLAYING CHANNELS BY CHANNEL OR TRANSMITTER...........................................................213 13.14CHANNEL PLAN UTILITIES ................................................................................................................ 215 13.15IMPORTING CHANNELS...................................................................................................................... 216 13.16INTERACTIVE CHANNEL PLANNING.................................................................................................. 219 14.1INTERFERENCE ANALYSIS................................................................................................................... 232 14.2SERVER BY BEST C/I ........................................................................................................................ 232 14.3INTERFERENCE ANALYSIS................................................................................................................... 232 14.4CHANNEL OPTIONS RESTRICTION OF INTERFERENCE...................................................................238 15.1INTRODUCTION TO SMART ANALYSIS...............................................................................................244 15.2DEFINING YOUR ANALYSIS REQUIREMENTS....................................................................................244 15.3THE INTERFACE..................................................................................................................................... 244 15.4INTERPRETING THE EVALUATION RESULTS ....................................................................................248 16.1NEIGHBOR LISTS................................................................................................................................... 251 16.2AUTOMATIC NEIGHBOR LIST GENERATION .....................................................................................251 16.3GEOGRAPHIC DISPLAY OF NEIGHBOR RELATIONS.........................................................................253 16.4NEIGHBOR LIST REPORTS................................................................................................................... 255 16.5IMPORTING NEIGHBOR LISTS ............................................................................................................. 256 17.1APPENDIX I SERVER CALCULATION METHODS AND PROPAGATION DETAILS...........................265 17.2APPENDIX II HIERARCHAL CELL STRUCTURING (HCS) DETAILS ..................................................265 17.3APPENDIX III TURBO (RADIAL) VS. STANDARD PROPAGATION CALCULATION METHODS........271 17.4APPENDIX IV TOWERS AND LOCATION BASED DATA.....................................................................272 17.5APPENDIX V FCC FUNCTIONALITY...................................................................................................... 277 17.6APPENDIX VI PRINTING AND PLOTTING............................................................................................. 281 17.7APPENDIX VII ADDING AND USING REPEATERS...............................................................................287 17.8APPENDIX VIII BEHIND THE SCENES AND PROJECT OPTIMIZATIONS...........................................291 17.9APPENDIX IX UNDERSTANDING USER PERMISSIONS AND CHANGE PETITIONS.........................304 17.10APPENDIX X UNDERSTANDING HOW THE ANALYSIS MANAGER FUNCTIONALITY WORKS.....312 17.11APPENDIX XI COVERAGE QUALITY IMPACT ANALYSIS USABILITY.............................................313 17.12APPENDIX XII PROFILE UTILITY FUNCTION.....................................................................................319
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1.1
Define a x-Wizard Project
A x-Wizard project contains a collection of data for a particular geographic region. All of the predictions that xWizard can run are done within the project. The project information defines the region boundaries, terrain, clutter and propagation parameters, and includes other basic information. The project contains all wireless systems information including switch, MSC, and cell sites collectively known as entities.
1.2
Opening an Existing Project

icon.
Select File > Open Project from the menu bar, the following dialog will appear: You can also open projects with the
The Automatically Load Channel Plan on Open selection will allow you to have a channel plan automatically open with whatever project you choose. Choose the type of project to open by selecting the Project Type dropdown. If you dont see a project that you know is on your system check to make sure the project path is set correctly by pressing Paths Enter your Password if your project administrator has set one up for you. Note: if you are the first person to ever log into this project you will not have a password. See appendix VI for more information on passwords and user permissions.
1.3
The User ID Field
Upon opening or creating a project, type a user ID in the User ID field, or select yours from the drop down list. The user ID allows x-Wizard to have unique user-specific settings. It is best that each user have his or her own individual user ID. The maximum character limit for this field is eight and no spaces are allowed. *Good project management dictates a naming convention for users that will make sense to those using the project. Last names, employee numbers and initials all work well consistency is the key. When opening projects, creating a new user ID will result in the following dialog when you select OK within the Open Project dialog:
Optimi Corp Selecting No cancels this operation and returns x-Wizard to the Open Project dialog. Selecting Yes results in the display of the Get User Settings dialog and allows the project settings of another user to be selected as the project settings for the new user.
In the Assume Project Settings From drop-down list, select the user with the desired project settings you want to use. The options allow you to get a copy of some or all of this users settings. The Get Basic User Settings is always selected. This option uses the project boundaries, coordinate system, map projection, measurement system, and terminology values that are found in the Edit Project dialog. The Get User Settings function can be accessed at any time, by selecting: Tools > Get User Settings.
1.4
Understand the Different Database Projects
x-Wizard recognizes three project types: Microsoft Access, Microsoft MSDE2000, and Oracle. All projects, regardless of type, store the same information. There are some fundamental differences between each project type.
Access No extra software required. x-Wizard has format Built-in No external database drivers needed. Maximum concurrent connections are approximately 12. Simplicity of setup. xWizard does not require any pre-installation setup on your computer or server to use access projects.
6
MSDE2000 Free Download from Microsoft Requires external database server to be installed and clients configured Maximum connections not published by MS but has been tested over 25 Uses MSDE2000 database and built in windows client. Good balance between simple Access and Complex Oracle
Oracle You must purchase and install Oracle 8.x or higher. Oracle requires that you download and setup the Oracle client. Maximum concurrent connections have been tested at over 75 users with stability. Requires that an Oracle server be installed on the network and configured for x-Wizard. It is often recommended to have an Oracle DBA (database administrator) on staff
Essentials of x-Wizard
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1.5
Pointing Projects to the Correct Path
x-Wizard determines the list of available projects from the Path it is directed to in the Change System Paths dialog. Select Paths in the Open Project screen. The top path in this dialog is the Projects Path; the path that is currently selected here is where x-Wizard finds the available projects. Always make sure this path is directed to the correct location where your target project resides * When x-Wizard is installed, the default path is C:\Program Files\wizard\
It is important to recognize that we have the following paths: Project, Terrain, Clutter, Antenna, Bin, and Common. Each path must be correctly directed in order to retrieve the Projects necessary information (it is important to note that Wizard does not look for an specific folder in each current path, it looks for the paths directory that correctly maps the folder and/or files to its current path. The following information is found: Project Path: must be directed were Wizard projects are found. The file directory is called, PROJECT.DIR. Terrain Path: must be directed were the Terrain databases are found. The file directory is called, TERRAIN.DIR Clutter Path: must be directed were the Clutter databases and Clutter Adjustment files are found. The files directories are: CLUTTER.DIR and ADJUST.DIR Antenna Path: must be directed were the Antenna database is. The file directory is called, ANTENNA.DIR Bin Path: must ALWAYS be directed to Wizards BIN folder as this is the path were Wizard prompts many analysis executables. Common Path: must be directed to Wizards Common folder as Wizard searches for many directories necessary for distinct databases such as: Propagation Models, Frequency Tables, etc.
Optimi Corp Wizard now offers you the possibility to save your Wizards paths configuration by simply clicking on the Save Settings button. In order to save a new Wizard Path configuration setting simply name your new setting under Paths Profile, verify that you have the correct paths assigned and click the Save Settings button. Automatically your new Path Profile will be saved.
1.6
Saving Projects and the Save Project As Option
Saving a Project: Select File > Save Project from the menu bar, the shortcut key F3, or the save icon . Save the project often, not only at completion. Changes in entity information for database projects are automatically saved as changes are made. User-specific views of the entities are saved. Database projects never need to be explicitly saved since the user specific changes are automatically updated upon exiting. User specific information such as active states will be saved only when you exit or execute the Save Project command. Save Project As Command With the project open, from the active project window select File > Save Project As from the menu. The Save Project As command is used to create a copy of an existing project. You can keep the same name for a project or rename it at this time. The project will be saved as this name. As part of the Save Project As functionality, when selecting an existing project name (other than the name of the project being saved), x-Wizard provides a warning Overwrite Existing Project? When overwriting the existing project having the name selected will be deleted and the currently opened project will be saved to that name.
Password - The user that is saving this project will have administrative permissions to the newly created project. If you would like to have a password for your User ID in the new project enter it here. Note- passwords are not required if you are not going to utilize permissions At the bottom of the Save Project As screen you have the option of Selective Save. Depending on what entities you want to save, you can select your options for saving and click save. You can also choose to Save All User Data which will save all the current users and their permissions to the new project. Selecting OK will save the project to your selected location along with all import project data. You will need to tell x-Wizard which optional project data you also what to copy to the new project.
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Use the checkboxes to select which of the saved analysis files you want to copy to your new project. If you do not want to copy any of files just select None.
1.7
Copying Projects
To Make A Copy in the Same Location Use the processes mentioned in the Save Project As section and rename the project. However, do not change the paths. To Change the Project Type Select the appropriate project type and click OK. Remember that you will need an Oracle server set up and the client drivers (ODBC) before you can use Oracle projects. Likewise with the MSDE2000 project type, you will need to configure a server and clients for your x-Wizard projects. To Make a Copy in a Different Location Use the File > Save Project as menu item, then left-click on the Paths option to select a new path to save your project to. Remember you can save to a new location anywhere your network will let you. You must have write privileges to the location that you select. You do not have to build the x-Wizard file structure when you save your projects to a new location. x-Wizard is programmed to write the files and folders that it needs if they do not exist.
1.8
Closing Projects
Select File > Close Project or F4 to close a project. If changes to a channel plan are made and not saved, xWizard will prompt to save the channel plan. You can also close a project by clicking on the X in the upper right hand corner of any x-Wizard project window.
1.9
Create a new Project
To create a new project in x-Wizard, click the new project toolbar button or use the command File > New Project. When creating a brand new project, first name the new project, select the project type (Microsoft Access is set by default, MSDE2000 and Oracle will be available if installed), specify the User ID, and password, then x-Wizard will prompt for the basic project information needed such as the project boundaries.
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1.10 Updating Master Projects

A Master Project allows a team of engineers to work collaboratively with common project data without the need to be continually connected to the project. Engineers work with local copies of data, make changes, and then update the shared master project. The local data is synchronized with the Master Project through Gets and Updates. To make use of this functionality, an engineer must first link the master and client projects. The steps follow. The initial client project is easily created using File > Save Project As. In the dialog below, the Master Project for Demonstration is copied to Client for Master Project for Demonstration.
Save Project As to Create Client Project Once created, right-click the Project name in the Wireless Explorer.
Context menu for project level in the Wireless Explorer
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Optimi Corp Select Specify Master Project then choose the Master Project to link with.
Linking the client project with the Master Project Now a Get from the client project retrieves data from the Master Project; an Update from the client project updates the Master Project with the local changes. Consider the following system below. There are 4 CDMA2000 sites: W1, W2, W3, and W4.
Starting Project Conditions Both the Wireless Explorer and the Wizard geographic map show the 4 sites. In the following steps, were going to modify the W2 site and update the Master Project with the changes. First, lock the W2 site by right-clicking W2 and selecting Lock.
Locking a Site The icon for the W2 site changes to reflect that it is locked in the Master Project. 11
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W2 Site is locked A lock prevents other engineers from modifying the site. Now its safe to make local changes and later to update the site changes to the Master Project. Note that you can also lock an entity above the site level to lock multiple sites. For example, locking at the switch level locks all sites of that switch. Now make site changes to W2. After your modifications, youll see that the icon changes to reflect recent changes:
W2 site icon indicates a change (the asterisk) Now right-click W2 and select update:
Update local changes to Master Project The Master Project now has your local changes. Please note that after an update, the lock will persist. The lock is designed for groups of engineers who divide up the project into specific areas. To unlock, you must explicitly select Unlock so that other engineers can modify the site. Now let us cover how new sites are added to the Master Project and then retrieved by the Client. You need to get it for your local project. You can select Get from any entity level. For example, Get at the project level will get all the sites in the project. Below we will get from the OHare Airport switch because a new site has been added there.
Get from the Switch Level The new Site W5 is added to your local (Client) project.
New Site W5 now available under O'Hare 12

Optimi Corp The new site will also be displayed on the map expected.
Sites W1 through W5 on display At any time from the local project, a Get will refresh the local data from the Master Project. So if other engineers updated sites, a Get will retrieve those changes to refresh your local project data. **NOTE: Please be aware that for Wizard 7.1.1x the Master-Client feature does not support the following Site updates: Site Name Site ID Site Number Site Parent Changes (update the sites SWITCH) BSC Parent Changes (update the switchs MSC) MSC Parent Changes (update the MSCs System)
WIZARD CONTINUES ITS NEVER-ENDING IMPROVEMENT PHASE, PLEASE EXPECT FURTHER ENHANCEMENTS ON THIS FUNCTIONUALITY ON FURTHER WIZARD RELEASES.
1.11 What is a x-Wizard Project?

Section 1, Working with Projects, shows that projects in x-Wizard are a collection of data for a particular area. This section provides more detail of that data and how to edit or change it to fit your needs. By default, xWizard will look at the variables assigned at the project level for most of its analysis unless specified otherwise.
1.12 The Edit Project Dialog

To see what data is assigned at the project or global level, look at the edit project screen. Select Edit > Project to bring up the following dialog:
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The left side of the Edit Project screen contains a list of the major sections to the Edit Project screen. To switch to the other sections simply left-click on the desired section and you will be presented with the options for that section. You can also use the Next > and < Back options in the lower part of the edit project screen to navigate between sections. We will look at each area with detail below. All fields in the dialog are considered global settings for the current project. Some of the options for the various fields will be the same for all projects. Some of the possible selections will vary depending on where the xWizard paths are directed. See the Appendix VI, Behind the Scenes for more information
1.13 Basic Project Data

This section contains basic project data that is required for all projects. The following is a list of the parameters and their requirements for the edit project screen. Boundaries these are project boundaries in degrees, minutes, seconds, and hemisphere. These boundaries control the extents of the display when the user zooms to the project extents. They are also used as default parameters when importing terrain, tower data files, and airport data. When creating a new project, you must enter the boundaries. To shrink or enlarge the area of a project, adjust these coordinate points. Coordinate System You must specify to x-Wizard the particular coordinate system group, name and datum that you are using for this project. The group option selects the particular coordinate group you will be using. You can specify either Latitude and Longitude or the Universal Transverse Mercator. If you choose the UTM coordinate group, you then must specify what UTM zone you would like referenced in the name field. Lastly, specify the local Datum type your coordinates are based on. If you are unsure about these settings please contact your GIS specialist or call x-Wizard support for more details. * Note You can change the Lat Long setting for x-Wizard here to decimal degrees Map Projection allows you to select the default x-Wizard projection (Cosine Projection), or an Orthographic Projection. These settings are for plotting only. Display Terrain this drop-down list allows you to select a default terrain file that is used for displaying terrain on the map view for this project. The Update Boundary feature will update the project boundary to be equal to this terrain file boundary. This file is where x-Wizard retrieves the terrain elevation information for predictions. Therefore, this file and the accuracy of this file are extremely important for correct predictions. 14
Optimi Corp Display Clutter ID Grid Clutter types (IDs) are land usage characteristics such as forest, urban, and farmland. Clutter is also referred to as morphology or environmental attributes. The file selected here is the one that will be used to display clutter on the map view Adjustment file Clutter adjustments specify the description and adjustments to be applied to the various types of clutter specified in the clutter type file. The file specify here will be used to describe the ID types in the ID grid and to apply a color to them when you display the clutter file on the map view. You can edit the adjustment values by clicking on the Edit button. See Section 13 Clutter Adjustments for more details on how clutter is used in x-Wizard Measurement System English or metric units are available. When you choose a measurement system, all project distances and measurements will be written and displayed in your project. You can however, switch between measurement systems at any time. Map Projection allows you to select Transverse Mercator, Lambert Conformal Conic, Cosine Projection, or No Projection. These settings are for plotting only. Measurement System English or metric units are available. When you choose a measurement system, all project distances and measurements will be written and displayed in your project. You can however, switch between measurement systems at any time.
1.14 RF Parameters
Highlighting the RF Parameters section will give you the following options:
Propagation Model you can create your own propagation parameters or use parameters available from within x-Wizard. This is where you select the default model for this project. As you will see later, you can also assign different parameter files at the cell and transmitter level for better predictions in that specific area. Analysis Terrain - The file selected here will be the default terrain file used to run analysis. Terrain files in xWizard can be applied to each individual site, however if you do not use site specific terrain files then x-Wizard will use the project level terrain file that you specify here. Analysis Clutter 15
Optimi Corp ID Grid Clutter types (IDs) are land usage characteristics such as forest, urban, and farmland. Clutter is also referred to as morphology or environmental attributes. Clutter files in x-Wizard can be applied to each individual site, or transmitter, however if you do not use site specific files then x-Wizard will use the project level clutter file that you specify here. Adjustment file Clutter adjustments specify the description and adjustments to be applied to the various types of clutter specified in the clutter type file. The file specify here will be used to describe the ID types in the ID grid and to apply RF adjustments to the calculated signal levels. You can edit the adjustment values by clicking on the Edit button. Primary Technology x-Wizard allows the selection of a default technology for a wireless network. This is a defaulta system with multiple technologies can be assigned various technologies for each transmitter. Depending on the technology, selected x-Wizard will re-organize your analysis menus so that the analyses for your default technology are located at the top of the analysis menu. FCC Contours Terrain File this drop-down list allows you to select the terrain file used for FCC contour analyses. This may be the same or a different file from the terrain file used for all other analyses. Terminology Specifies if the project uses AMPS-TDMA-CDMA, GSM or 1xEV-DO terminology. AMPS-TDMA-CDMA Project System MSC Switch Cell Sector Transmitter Beam GSM Project System MSC BSC BTS Cell Transmitter Beam 1xEv-DO Project Access Network MSC Switch Cell Sector Transmitter Beam
Underlay / Overlay Nomenclature - Specify if you want to use a vendor (NEM) specific naming for your HCS (Hierarchical Cell Structuring). If you prefer to use the standard 0,1,2 model then leave this one blank Display ERP in Specify if you want to see ERP values in Watts or dBm Building Database - you must specify a building database to use the Wavecall microcell or Lee microcell model. Microcell modeling requires the use of a building database. Identify Sites By- This setting will change the display of site to either the Sector-ID-In-Switch (CID) or the Name-Status-UserID (x-Wizard default) Identify Transmitters By- This setting will change the display of Transmitter to either the Sector-ID-In-Switch (CID) or the Name-Status-UserID (x-Wizard default)
1.15 Technology Specific Data

For each technology other than AMPS, TDMA, or iDEN x-Wizard requires a specific technology parameter file. This section of the Edit Project screen allows you to apply a global technology parameter file for each of your different technologies. You can edit any of these technology parameters by clicking on the Edit button below the corresponding section. As was mentioned earlier the parameters you specify here are project level, you can specify them at the site and transmitter levels as well.
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Display Power in this is where you can assign the way you want the power displayed in you x-Wizard project. Your choices are Watts or dBm. Power Allocation This drop-down list allows you to specify CDMA power allocation as either an absolute power in watts, a percentage of pilot channel power, or a percentage of total power. These parameters are not covered within the Essentials of x-Wizard class. For more information on CDMA parameters, Optimi has other training classes specifically for x-Wizard with CDMA, CDMA2000, and GSM.
1.16 Frequency Table

This section of the Edit Project screen allows you to set up and configure the frequencies that you are concerned with in this project.
Each Technology can be assigned a different Frequency Table (required) as well as a Template (optional). The available frequency tables and templates are stored in the common folder of your x-Wizard install. You must assign at least a frequency table to run interference analysis. The templates are used for display purposes. You can assign templates and frequency tables at the System, Switch, and Transmitter level. Assigning them here at the project level will make them the default for this project. These are covered in greater detail in Section 14 Channel Planning with x-Wizard.
1.17 Permissions
Project permissions are set from this screen. Permissions are not required to run x-Wizard and therefore are not specifically part of the Essentials training class. If you would like more information about project permissions see the appendix VI area on permissions.
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1.18 Project Summary

A composite summary of all the options in the edit project screen is available for you to view. You can copy this data using your clipboard and paste it into any text capable program, such as Word, WordPad, Outlook, etc.
The Display Styles button selecting this option allows you to specify the display styles to be used when the entity display resolution is set to project level. More information about the display styles and options are available in Section 10, x-Wizard Display.
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x-Wizard Layout and Navigation
1 WORKING WITH PROJECTS......................................................................................................................... 1 2 X-WIZARD LAYOUT AND NAVIGATION..................................................................................................... 19 3 TERRAIN FILES AND THE BIN GRID........................................................................................................... 28 4 THE X-WIZARD HIERARCHY, ENTITY STRUCTURE, AND STATES .......................................................39 5 USING THE WIRELESS EXPLORER WITH ENTITIES.................................................................................55 6 EDITING THE ENTITIES WITHIN A PROJECT.............................................................................................67 7 X-WIZARD MASS EDITING TOOLS............................................................................................................. 92 8 COMMON ANALYSIS DATA AND BASIC COVERAGE.............................................................................107 9 X-WIZARD DISPLAY OPTIONS AND VISUAL CONTROLS......................................................................123 10 SPECIALIZED COVERAGE ANALYSES................................................................................................. 154 11 MEASURED DATA INTEGRATION .......................................................................................................... 163 12 CLUTTER ADJUSTMENTS....................................................................................................................... 186 13 CHANNEL PLANNING.............................................................................................................................. 197 14 INTERFERENCE ANALYSES IN X-WIZARD...........................................................................................231 15 SMART ANALYSIS................................................................................................................................... 240 16 NEIGHBOR LISTS.................................................................................................................................... 250 17 APPENDICES........................................................................................................................................... 260
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2.1
Window layouts
Now that a project is created, we can look at how x-Wizard is laid out on the computer screen and how the different windows or areas are used. Below is a screen shot including areas covered in this manual.
Tool Bars
Wireless Explorer (WEX)
Map View
Enhanced Side Bar
Status Bar
Within this window, you may edit all of the data within the project. The application window can also be considered your currently active project. x-Wizard has two main components to the application window: the Map View and the Wireless Explorer (WEX). Window size can be adjusted by dragging the window borders. The Wireless Explorer x-Wizards WEX is a hierarchical based representation of a wireless network. This file structure system should be intuitive to those with experience using other Windows programs. Section 6, using the Wireless Explorer, is devoted entirely to the WEX and its functionality. For now, simply keep in mind that it is the organizational or depth chart of your project. The Wireless Explorer also has two new features that were added to further improve engineering efficiency. These are the Map Options and Menu Favorites. Use the following hotkeys to toggle between the different Wireless Explorer tabs, Ctrl+W (WEX), Ctrl+O (Map Options), and Ctrl+U (Menu Favorites).
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Optimi Corp The Menu Options The x-Wizards Map Options tab allows to displays map layers. The layers include sites, grids, picture files, mapping, images, location data, and legend information.
The Menu Favorites The x-Wizards Menu Favorites tab allows you to configure favorite menu commands, similar to how Internet Explorer Favorites and Mozilla Firefox Bookmarks do with HTTP access, for easy access. With a simple copy/paste or dragging/dropping of menu options to the Menu Favorite folder you will have access to your favorite menus in one single location for you to access with one click.
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Analysis Manager - a sidebar component, adds the ability to manage previously run analyses. The functionality is superset of the View Previously Run Analysis. Each completed analysis is recorded as a previously run analysis. The Analysis Manager groups analyses according to the analysis type, like Best Server and Interference. In the image below, the background shows the Analysis Manager sidebar along with the Wizard Map. The foreground shows the Analysis Manager component enlarged. For more information on how to maximize the Analysis Manager functionality please refer to Appendix VIII.
Analysis Manager as Sidebar (ENLARGED in foreground) Map View the map view is the area in x-Wizard where all the magic happens. It displays your terrain, analysis, cells and transmitters, pictures, and overlays. Anything you can graphically represent in x-Wizard is shown in this view. We will review the functionality and control of this area in detail in Section 10, x-Wizard Display Options and Visual Controls.
2.2
The VIEW Window
View windows allow you to view named analysis, terrain, or FCC terrain and demand grid. Within the view window, you can change display controls such as overlays and display bands, but you cannot edit the project data or run analyses. To get to the view window, click File > Open View and select a view.
2.3
The LEGEND Window
The legend window displays legend information related to the edit and view windows. Information such as cell data and colors used for the signal strength display bands is found on this screen. No Analysis is displayed instead of the analysis type if there is no analysis in the associated edit or view window. To bring up the legend, select View > Display > legend, or press F10. To edit the legend, double click the legend once it is displayed.
2.4
Status bar
As shown in the screenshot at the top of this section, the status bar is the group of indicators at the bottom of the x-Wizard display. These indicators were created to help x-Wizard users understand what they are viewing. They show if anything is currently running or out of place.
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Optimi Corp Map Window Validity Indicator a red box indicates that the displayed analysis and the state of the project may not match. For example, if a coverage analysis is displayed and a cell is edited, the configuration the analysis was created in may not match the configuration of the project. If this box is red, you must re-run the analysis. Entity Resolution this box indicates the display resolution of analysisvalues range from project through TX (transmitter). Channel Resolutionthis box indicates the display resolution of the channel plan values range from group to channel.
Use the borders to create custom zoom areas. When working in a particular zoom quite often, enter the coordinates of the border corners under View > Zoom > Boundary Zoom . Save those zooms to recall at any time. Map View Borders & Mouse Location Northwest and southeast corners are displayed here. The mouse indicator shows the exact location of the mouse pointer as it moves within the map view.
Analysis Running Indicators These boxes are filled with a color to indicate that a background process is running. If a box also contains an x, the process currently being run is in the active project window. If more than one project is open, a process is running in an inactive project window, in that case, the box will be colored but will not contain an x. Background Process Colors Yellow Green Blue Magenta White Cyan Red Black Analysis Picture File Maker HPGL File Maker Import Files (Except for importing towers, airports and demand) Import Towers Import Airports Export to MapInfo Traffic Demand Data Import
2.5
The Tool Bars
x-Wizard Toolbars are split into a few sections. The various sections can be displayed or not displayed by selecting View > Toolbars. Choose the toolbar to be viewed. Drawing = For specific instructions on the drawing toolbar, refer to Section 10, Display Options and x-Wizard Visual Controls.
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General = New project Open project Save project
Print screen This only prints the current map view window
Mouse Style = BoxDraw a box around the entities you want to select Circle Sweep a circular area to select entities EllipseSweep in an elliptical area to select entities PointPoint mode will let you point to the specific entity you need. Polygon this tool will let you select by drawing a polygon shape. Action mode These buttons are used to accomplish different tasks in the map view section of x-Wizard. Understanding these buttons is crucial to being a proficient x-Wizard user. ZOOM - Zoom in for more detail/Zoom out to view a greater area. PAN - Used to pan the current display, Grab the screen with the hand icon and move the screen to the desired location using the mouse. EDIT - Used to edit the parameters of selected sites, you can edit a single cell using the Point mode. Edit multiple cells using the Box, Circle or Ellipse modes. ADD - Used to add a new site, click the desired location for the site. The edit cell dialog box will display and allow data to be entered. In most circumstances, it is better to copy than to add. DELETE - Used to delete a cell by selecting the cell to be deleted; delete multiple cells by using the box, circle, or ellipse styles. x-Wizard will prompt to confirm the deletions. MOVE - Used to move a cell on screen to a new location, click on the cell to be moved, and then click on the new position. ACTIVATE - Used to activate cells that are inactive, if the parent of a cell is inactive, use the main xWizard menu edit commands to activate the parent and make the cell fully active. DEACTIVATE - Used to inactivate cells that are currently active. TOGGLE - Used to change the state of cells from active to inactive or from inactive to active 24
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COPY - Used to copy the configuration of an existing cell site to a different location, first select the cell to be copied, and then click on the new location. PROFILE - Used to display 2D terrain and analysis data profiles, click to select the start point and drag in any direction or distance to obtain the profile that you want. The Profile window will automatically update as you drag the endpoint to new locations. Please refer to Appendix X for detailed information regarding the Profile Utility. POINT - Used to show point terrain, clutter and analysis data for the active project, or view. Click the left mouse button in the edit window to show the point data in a separate text box. Click-and-drag will interactively update the point data displayed. Used to show serving or interfering cells and the analysis results for the selected bin, and visually points pack to them using radials. Additionally, the Point Data utility can be paused using the pause key from your keyboard.
Point Data with and without Pause When paused, the mouse movement does not change the Point Data display. This can be handy for a couple of reasons: 1) To scroll and/or resize the Point Data dialog in order to view the desired information (without changing the data for the current mouse location) 2) To get a screenshot or jot down information from the Point Data dialog. HEX - Used to generate a hexagonal grid for use as a map overlay or picture file. With a single mouse click, select the location on screen where a Hex grid is to be centered. A prompt to enter the desired grid parameters (name of overlay, size, location, orientation, and color) will appear. TERRAIN EDIT - Used to show and modify the numeric values for the terrain grid, move the indicator within the current display to make the terrain elevation table appear. Update the terrain elevations where appropriate. MICROWAVE - Uses the project terrain and clutter data to display and analyze point-to-point microwave paths CLUTTER EDIT - Used to show and modify the numeric values for the clutter type grid, move the indicator within the current display to make the clutter table appear. COCHANNEL - Used to indicate cells that have channels with the co- or adjacent channels in the selected cell site (requires channel plan) CHANNEL EDIT- Used to access the channel template view, allowing you to select channels 25
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TOWERS - Used to show information on the FCC and FAA towers, you must have the FCC and FAA towers database must be open and displayed to use this function. AIRPORTS - Used to show information on the airports, the airports database must be open and displayed to use this function AM LOCATIONS - Used to show AM locations information, The AM locations database must be open and displayed to use this function DISTANCE - Used to measure and show the distance when in the point style mode. Used to show the radius when in the circle style mode MOBILE ADD -Used to manually add mobiles on the screen, Mobiles are used for distribution analyses for CDMA and UMTS. MOBILE DELETE Deletes mobiles that were added to the distribution. EDIT NEIGHBORS - Used to manually edit the assignment of neighbors on the screen (Requires Neighbor List) SHOW NEIGHBORS - Select a transmitter to display its neighbor relationships; all neighbors of the transmitter will be colored according to the neighbor status open the legend window to see the color assignment. (Requires Neighbor List) ISOLATE ENTITY - Used to display the analysis attributed exclusively to a cell or sector, this is most useful when running large analysis to display one cell or TX. Hold down the Ctrl key while using the Isolate Entity tool to select more than one entity at a time. SHOW REPEATERS - Once you have a repeater assigned to a donor Cell or TX, you can show them on screen using this tool SHOW COVERAGE - This tool will allow you to show a quick coverage of any sector(s) you select. To use this tool, select the Show Coverage toolbar button then click on the sector you want to show. To show multiple sectors at the same time hold down the Ctrl key while selecting. OPEN PIVOT TABLE - This tool button allows to launch the Online Analytical Processing reporting tool OLAP. The OLAP provides custom on-the-fly reports for viewing, auditing, and selecting data. Selected data can be edited en masse. The viewing and editing capabilities provide powerful new functionality previously unavailable in Wizard.
2.6
Customization of the Toolbar
You may customize the toolbar to suit individual needs. Creating a customized toolbar provides more screen space. Select Format > Customize Toolbar and assign the toolbar options as follows:
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Under the current toolbar buttons section, use the Add-> and <-Remove buttons to select the mouse modes to be shown on screen. To close this screen and to apply your custom toolbar settings click Close. The Reset button will set the buttons back to the x-Wizard defaults.
2.7
Menu Bar (File, Edit, View)
Menu Arrangement Microsoft Office tools are used by millions of people worldwide. All MS Office tools share a similar top-level menu structure. An example of this benefit is the decreased learning curve for Microsoft Word users who try Excel for the first time. The x-Wizard menu structure being similar to MS Office tools simplifies the learning of x-Wizard. *The menu bar items have the first or second letter underlined to indicate accessibility keys. Hold the ALT key while pressing the underlined letter on the keyboard to activate the menu.
2.8
x-Wizard Shortcut Keys

Short Cut Key LAUNCHES <F1 > Help <F2 > Open Project <F3 > Save Project <F4 > Close Project <F5 > Redraw <F7 > Analysis Parameters <F8 > Display Resolution <F9 > Display Analysis <F10 > Display legend <F11 > Display Inactive <F12 > Display Map Scale The WEX has built in shortcut keys for expanding use Control Key + 1-6 to: Ctrl+1 = System Ctrl+2 = MSC Ctrl+3 = Switch Ctrl+4 = Cell Ctrl+5 = Sector Ctrl+6 = Transmitter <Ctrl A > Smart Analysis <Ctrl B > Groups Assignment and Entity Selection <Ctrl C > Custom Fields <Ctrl D > Group Assignment <Ctrl E > Show/Hide Explorer Bar <Ctrl F > Find Entity <Ctrl G > Groups <Ctrl H > Channel Display Options <Ctrl L > LOAD ACTIVE SET <Ctrl N > Save Active Picture As <Ctrl O > Map Options <Ctrl Q> Query tool
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<Ctrl S > <Ctrl U > <Ctrl W > <Ctrl X > <Ctrl Z > To edit any entity level use: Save Active Set Menu Favorite Display WEX Exit Zoom To Boundaries Ctrl+Alt+1 = Project Ctr+Altl+2 = System Ctrl+Alt+3 = MSC Ctrl+Alt+4 = Switch (BSC) Ctrl+Alt+5 = Cell (BTS) Ctrl+Alt+6 = Channels <Ctrl F4 > <Ctrl F8 > <Ctrl F9 > <Ctrl F10 > <Ctrl F11 > <Ctrl F12 > <Alt F8 > <Alt F9 > <Alt+Shift+V> <Alt+Shift+R> Right Click Mouse IN MAP VIEW Close Project Display Mobiles Display Terrain Edit Legend Display Invisible Display Channels Entity Relationship Display Clutter View Petitions Review Petitions Map Options
Terrain Files and the Bin Grid
1.1DEFINE A X-WIZARD PROJECT.................................................................................................................. 5 1.2OPENING AN EXISTING PROJECT............................................................................................................. 5 1.3THE USER ID FIELD..................................................................................................................................... 5 1.4UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENT DATABASE PROJECTS........................................................................6 1.5POINTING PROJECTS TO THE CORRECT PATH......................................................................................7 1.6SAVING PROJECTS AND THE SAVE PROJECT AS OPTION................................................................8 1.7COPYING PROJECTS................................................................................................................................... 9 1.8CLOSING PROJECTS................................................................................................................................... 9 1.9CREATE A NEW PROJECT.......................................................................................................................... 9 1.10UPDATING MASTER PROJECTS............................................................................................................ 10 1.11WHAT IS A X-WIZARD PROJECT?.......................................................................................................... 13 1.12THE EDIT PROJECT DIALOG.................................................................................................................. 13 1.13BASIC PROJECT DATA............................................................................................................................ 14 1.14RF PARAMETERS..................................................................................................................................... 15 1.15TECHNOLOGY SPECIFIC DATA.............................................................................................................. 16 1.16FREQUENCY TABLE................................................................................................................................ 17 1.17PERMISSIONS........................................................................................................................................... 17 1.18PROJECT SUMMARY .............................................................................................................................. 18 2.1WINDOW LAYOUTS.................................................................................................................................... 20 2.2THE VIEW WINDOW .................................................................................................................................. 22 2.3THE LEGEND WINDOW 28 .......................................................................................................................... 22
Optimi Corp 2.4STATUS BAR.............................................................................................................................................. 22 2.5THE TOOL BARS........................................................................................................................................ 23 2.6CUSTOMIZATION OF THE TOOLBAR....................................................................................................... 26 2.7MENU BAR (FILE, EDIT, VIEW).............................................................................................................. 27 2.8X-WIZARD SHORTCUT KEYS ................................................................................................................... 27 3.1THE BIN GRID............................................................................................................................................. 33 3.2TERRAIN FILES.......................................................................................................................................... 33 3.3LOADING TERRAIN.................................................................................................................................... 33 3.4SELECTING TERRAIN................................................................................................................................ 34 3.5VIEWING AND DISPLAYING TERRAIN...................................................................................................... 35 3.6TERRAIN IN THE MAP VIEW ..................................................................................................................... 37 4.1THE ENTITY HIERARCHY.......................................................................................................................... 43 4.2PROJECT MANAGEMENT USING THE ENTITY HIERARCHY STRUCTURE..........................................43 4.3STATUS TYPES.......................................................................................................................................... 44 4.4WORKING AND MANAGING STATUS TYPES..........................................................................................45 4.5USING COLORS TO DISPLAY ACTIVITY/VISIBILITY STATUS OF ENTITIES.........................................46 4.6THE EDIT ACTIVE MENU ITEM.................................................................................................................. 48 4.7DISPLAYING CELL SITES USING STATUSES ACTIVE BY STATUS...................................................49 4.8DELETING CELL SITES USING STATUSES DELETE BY STATUS......................................................50 4.9USING ACTIVE SETS.................................................................................................................................. 51 4.10USING GROUPS........................................................................................................................................ 51 5.1INTRODUCTION TO THE WIRELESS EXPLORER....................................................................................59 5.2CONTROLLING THE WIRELESS EXPLORER DISPLAY..........................................................................61 5.3CONTEXT MENUS...................................................................................................................................... 63 5.4THE FIND UTILITY...................................................................................................................................... 65 6.1EDITING THE ENTITIES WITHIN A PROJECT........................................................................................... 71 6.2CREATING, EDITING, COPYING, DELETING ENTITIES...........................................................................72 6.3THE EDIT CELL AND SELECTIVE CELL EDIT DIALOG...........................................................................73 6.4EDITING CELLS.......................................................................................................................................... 75 6.5THE TX/RX SPREADSHEET....................................................................................................................... 78 7.1ABOUT MASS EDITING TOOLS................................................................................................................. 96 7.2QUERY AND EDIT....................................................................................................................................... 96 7.3IMPORT EXPORT PROJECT DATA TOOL................................................................................................99 7.4USING THE IMPORT / EXPORT PROJECT DATA FIELDS FOR CREATING CUSTOM SITE REPORTS ........................................................................................................................................................................ 101 7.5OLAP FUNCTIONALITY ........................................................................................................................... 103 8.1COMMON ANALYSIS DATA..................................................................................................................... 111 8.2COVERAGE ANALYSIS............................................................................................................................ 116 8.3ENTITY DISPLAY RESOLUTION.............................................................................................................. 117 Essentials of x-Wizard 29
Optimi Corp 8.4DISPLAY BAND COLORS........................................................................................................................ 118 8.5ANALYSIS SPECIFIC BAND COLORS PROJECT LEVEL DISPLAYS. .................................................118 8.6QUICK COVERAGE USING THE SHOW COVERAGE MOUSE MODE BUTTON...................................120 8.7THE LEGEND............................................................................................................................................ 120 9.1WHAT IS CONTROLLABLE IN THE X-WIZARD DISPLAY? ...................................................................124 9.2MAP OPTIONS ........................................................................................................................................ 124 9.3MAP ANNOTATIONS................................................................................................................................ 142 9.4ASSIGNING VALUES TO OBJECTS........................................................................................................ 146 9.5AREA STATISTICS ................................................................................................................................... 149 9.6ZOOM......................................................................................................................................................... 150 9.7 COLOR SCHEMES................................................................................................................................... 151 9.8CHANGING FONT..................................................................................................................................... 153 10.1OVERLAPPING COVERAGE ................................................................................................................. 158 10.2REVERSE LINK....................................................................................................................................... 158 10.3NUMBER OF SERVERS.......................................................................................................................... 159 10.4PATH LOSS............................................................................................................................................. 159 10.5MOST LIKELY SERVER.......................................................................................................................... 159 10.6JOINT PROBABILITY.............................................................................................................................. 159 10.7LINE OF SIGHT....................................................................................................................................... 160 10.8PREVIOUSLY RUN ANALYSIS............................................................................................................... 161 11.1 MEASURED DATA FUNCTIONALITY................................................................................................... 164 11.2IMPORTING MEASURED DATA............................................................................................................. 164 11.3 VIEWING MEASURED DATA................................................................................................................. 166 11.4 FILTER OR EDIT MEASURED DATA.................................................................................................... 170 11.5 MEASURED DATA ASSOCIATION....................................................................................................... 171 11.6MEASURED DATA SHIFT ...................................................................................................................... 174 11.7COMPARING MEASUREMENTS TO PREDICTIONS.............................................................................174 11.8BATCHED PROPAGATION MODEL OPTIMIZATION............................................................................177 11.9MEASURED VS PREDICTED ANALYSIS............................................................................................... 180 11.10MODEL AVERAGING ........................................................................................................................... 181 11.11EVALUATING THE RESULTS.............................................................................................................. 183 11.12MERGING OF MEASURED DATA INTO PREDICTIONS ....................................................................183 11.13 REMOVE MEASURED DATA ASSOCIATION.....................................................................................185 ....................................................................................................................................................................... 185 12.1WHAT ARE CLUTTER ADJUSTMENTS?............................................................................................... 190 12.2LOADING THE CLUTTER FILE.............................................................................................................. 190 12.3CREATING OR EDITING A CLUTTER ADJUSTMENT FILE..................................................................190 12.4SELECTING CLUTTER AND CLUTTER ADJUSTMENT FILES............................................................192 30
Optimi Corp 12.5OPTIMIZING CLUTTER VALUES WITH DRIVE TEST DATA................................................................192 12.6EDITING THE CLUTTER FILE................................................................................................................ 195 12.7DISPLAYING THE CLUTTER FILE......................................................................................................... 195 13.1CHANNEL PLANNING IN X-WIZARD .................................................................................................... 198 13.2CHANNEL PLANNING TERMINOLOGY.................................................................................................198 13.3ASSIGNING FREQUENCY TABLES....................................................................................................... 198 13.4EDITING FREQUENCY TABLES............................................................................................................ 200 13.5CHANNEL PLAN TEMPLATES............................................................................................................... 202 13.6ASSIGNING A CHANNEL TEMPLATE................................................................................................... 203 13.7SELECTING A CHANNEL PLAN............................................................................................................ 203 13.8HOW TO ASSIGN CHANNELS............................................................................................................... 204 13.9SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR IDEN PROJECTS IDEN CHANNEL TEMPLATES..............208 13.10SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR GSM TECHNOLOGY...................................................................209 13.11PN AND SCRAMBLE CODE PLANS FOR CDMA TECHNOLOGIES..................................................210 13.12DISPLAYING CHANNELS AND CHANNEL OPTIONS.........................................................................211 13.13DISPLAYING CHANNELS BY CHANNEL OR TRANSMITTER...........................................................213 13.14CHANNEL PLAN UTILITIES ................................................................................................................ 215 13.15IMPORTING CHANNELS...................................................................................................................... 216 13.16INTERACTIVE CHANNEL PLANNING.................................................................................................. 219 14.1INTERFERENCE ANALYSIS................................................................................................................... 232 14.2SERVER BY BEST C/I ........................................................................................................................ 232 14.3INTERFERENCE ANALYSIS................................................................................................................... 232 14.4CHANNEL OPTIONS RESTRICTION OF INTERFERENCE...................................................................238 15.1INTRODUCTION TO SMART ANALYSIS...............................................................................................244 15.2DEFINING YOUR ANALYSIS REQUIREMENTS....................................................................................244 15.3THE INTERFACE..................................................................................................................................... 244 15.4INTERPRETING THE EVALUATION RESULTS ....................................................................................248 16.1NEIGHBOR LISTS................................................................................................................................... 251 16.2AUTOMATIC NEIGHBOR LIST GENERATION .....................................................................................251 16.3GEOGRAPHIC DISPLAY OF NEIGHBOR RELATIONS.........................................................................253 16.4NEIGHBOR LIST REPORTS................................................................................................................... 255 16.5IMPORTING NEIGHBOR LISTS ............................................................................................................. 256 17.1APPENDIX I SERVER CALCULATION METHODS AND PROPAGATION DETAILS...........................265 17.2APPENDIX II HIERARCHAL CELL STRUCTURING (HCS) DETAILS ..................................................265 17.3APPENDIX III TURBO (RADIAL) VS. STANDARD PROPAGATION CALCULATION METHODS........271 17.4APPENDIX IV TOWERS AND LOCATION BASED DATA.....................................................................272 17.5APPENDIX V FCC FUNCTIONALITY...................................................................................................... 277 17.6APPENDIX VI PRINTING AND PLOTTING............................................................................................. 281 31
Optimi Corp 17.7APPENDIX VII ADDING AND USING REPEATERS...............................................................................287 17.8APPENDIX VIII BEHIND THE SCENES AND PROJECT OPTIMIZATIONS...........................................291 17.9APPENDIX IX UNDERSTANDING USER PERMISSIONS AND CHANGE PETITIONS.........................304 17.10APPENDIX X UNDERSTANDING HOW THE ANALYSIS MANAGER FUNCTIONALITY WORKS.....312 17.11APPENDIX XI COVERAGE QUALITY IMPACT ANALYSIS USABILITY.............................................313 17.12APPENDIX XII PROFILE UTILITY FUNCTION.....................................................................................319
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3.1
The Bin Grid
Calculations in x-Wizard or any RF planning tool require certain information before an analysis can be performed. For instance, using the Lee Model of propagation prediction, some reference and effective heights of the transmitted and received antenna are needed to complete the prediction formula. Clutter or morphological adjustments are also part of this equation along with many other components. The need for some sort of collection of terrain data such as elevation or land use is obviously required. The x-Wizard terrain file comes into use at this point. x-Wizard uses a grid system to apply data to the map view. This data can be elevation, clutter, RSL (Received Signal Level) or carrier to interference values. Each grid box in x-Wizard is called a bin. The number or size of these bins is determined when the terrain file is created. This is also known as terrain resolution. Resolution how long it takes to run a prediction or analysis in x-Wizard greatly depends on the terrain file resolution being used. These values are actually the square size of the bins. x-Wizard must solve for the analysis result for every bin within the cells calculation distances. For example, if your bins are 125m, xWizard is calculating a new signal level every 410 ft, until it reaches the end of the calculation distance that you supply. Obviously, the smaller the bins (higher resolution), the longer the time it will take x-Wizard to calculate since there are more points. It would be ideal to calculate every point imaginable, but that is impossible given todays technology. Instead, determine the best possible resolution for your particular network to maximize calculation speed and generate accurate predictions. Some of the factors you may use to base your determination on are the relief of the terrain (flat or mountains), the type of cell (macro or micro), and the available computing resources. The propagation prediction model can also help determine the best resolution to use. Most of the propagation models x-Wizard employs empirically based models. They were determined with a specific size bin or target area in mind. Using a bin too small or too large may invalidate that model and skew the predictions. Recommendation - We at Optimi have adopted a process developed by the study The processing Resolution Required for Accurate RF Coverage Validation and Prediction IEEE Transaction on Vehicular Technology, Vol. 49,No. 5, September 2000 P. Bernardin and K. Manoj, wherein the best possible resolution of your bin size is a function of your nominal cell radius. If you would like more information on this study, please contact x-Wizard support.
3.2
Terrain Files
Now that we have explained the importance of the terrain file in x-Wizard, next we will look at how to get a terrain file for a project. Optimi does not create terrain elevation databases. This process is an extremely tedious and expensive it is done by GIS (Geographic Information Systems) data providers. An entire industry and science has developed around the collection and creation of these Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). Just as x-Wizard has varying resolutions for its terrain files, so does the raw data that is created by the various GIS data providers. The raw data also has vertical accuracy ratings because it would be useless to have a sample point every 10 meters if the elevation is not correct. There are various qualities of raw terrain data available. The higher the resolution and accuracy, the more expensive the data set. x-Wizard can import many of the standard file types that are available in the GIS community, as we will demonstrate below. Terrain is stored in x-Wizard independent of project information. Any terrain file is available for use within any project. This allows the user to have more than one copy of a project without recreating the terrain.
3.3
Loading Terrain
After raw data has been imported into x-Wizard, it must be loaded into the program for use. To accomplish this, select File > Load > Terrain File:
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Enter the path and filename in the source file text box or click browse to select the file. Specify the long name for the file, then the DOS-legal name that will be used for the actual file name. If a source file was chosen using browse, the file name field will be the same as the source file name. The file name may be changed. Since loading data will not allow other files to be overwritten, the load will not be successful if a terrain file exists under the same name as specified in the file name. The optional source text box is used to record the source format of the terrain and may be left blank. The write to system terrain, the directory should be selected to ensure that the new file is loaded into the correct terrain folder.
3.4
Selecting Terrain
With the terrain loaded, it is now available for use in a project. Click Edit > Project and select the terrain in the drop-down list located in the upper right hand corner of the Edit Project dialog. At the project level, Wizard supports terrain for display and terrain for propagation predictions. The selections could use the same terrain file. Or they could be different in area, resolution, and elevations (unlikely for elevation though). For propagation predictions, terrain can be specified at the site level. If specified, predictions for the site use the site-specified terrain rather than the project terrain. If multiple sites specify different terrain files, the terrain areas can overlap. Wizard now has the ability to visualize these different terrain files simultaneously. The dialog image below shows two selected terrain files for display. Where two terrain files overlap an area, the higher-resolution terrain file data is displayed.
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Multiple Terrain Files for Display
3.5
Viewing and Displaying Terrain
To view a terrain file in x-Wizard, go to the WEX Map Options Tab and select Terrain under the Grids (Raster Data) Tree, or simply use the Ctrl+F9 hot key. To change how terrain is displayed, do a right mouse click on the Terrain option located in the WEX Map Options Tab, and select Properties options. The following dialog will be displayed.
To choose to display the terrain selected for propagation analyses or for FCC analyses, select the appropriate option at the top of the dialog and the number of bands to display. In this case, the bands refer to terrain elevation values. The minimum and maximum terrain elevations within the selected file are shown within the band limits frame.
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Optimi Corp Note that the functionality of this box allow you to select the number of bands to display and enter each terrain band elevation settinga max of 48 bands are allowed Enter the maximum elevation desired in the upper box and the minimum desired in the last band and auto increment to fill the intervening boxes with equally incremented elevation values. You can obtain the Max and Min elevations by pressing the Get Elevation Max and Min button. The Shaded Relief Scale Factor will allow you to set the amount of shading between your elevation bands. The more shading you have the more drastic a difference there will be between your elevation bands. Experiment with this to get the best look for your area. Select the colors option to change displayed terrain colors. Each of the terrain bands can have an associated color.
For natural looking terrain use light colors for upper bands, greens for middle bands, and browns or earth tones for lower bands. If the market contains a large water body, make a single blue band at that elevation. Default terrain colors will produce gray scale colors for four bands. The auto increment feature will automatically increment colors through the number of bands specified based upon the colors already specified for the upper and lower bands. Click OK to return to the show terrain dialog applying the new colors. x-Wizard utilizes terrain styles to either display the terrain in area mode or line mode. Select Style. The terrain style dialog box will now appear.
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Optimi Corp You may choose between two basic Terrain Styles: Lines or Area. Horizontal lines are used for line style and different area options are available for area style. You can choose to display two types of Area Options: 1. Contour lines by selecting Contours 2. Filled display option by selecting Fill If you select the Fill method, you must next select to display either Plain (checked) or Non-Plain mode. Plain mode will turn off all of the shaded relief and use the terrain bins for the minimum size drawing area. Unchecking Plain will allow you to have shaded relief and x-Wizard will decide on the best drawing method to use. You can also set the granularity of the terrain display by selecting how many pixels or bins to draw. Selecting 1 will cause every pixel will be colored. Typing 2 fills every other pixel, 3 every third pixel and so on. The every box controls both the screen and the plotter. It may be best to change this number when printing. Experiment for best results. Selecting Interpolate causes the filled colors to be interpolated as they pass from band to band. This can provide a nice smoothing effect. Select Contours to display contour lines for the bands. The contours option draws iso-value lines for each display band. If Labels is selected, the iso-value lines are labeled.
3.6
Terrain in the Map View
x-Wizard can show terrain in the map view as well. To view a terrain file in x-Wizard, go to the WEX Map Options Tab and select Terrain under the Grids (Raster Data) Tree, or simply use the Ctrl+F9 hot key. All other functions are the same as described above. To see the Terrain Display Options go to the WEX Map Options Tab and perform a right mouse click on the Terrain option, and select the Display Options options. This dialog allows you to change the Terrain Drawing Style, and Area Options that best fit your needs.
You can also access the terrain display colors using the Format > Terrain Colors command. Terrain Values -To edit terrain values for the terrain file with the terrain edit toolbar function, make the desired project active, select the terrain edit tool, and click anywhere on the geographic display. The following dialog will appear:
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Optimi Corp
To change the location of the edit rectangle, use the horizontal and vertical slider bars provided. Edit any terrain elevation value by selecting that value and entering a new value. Select Save to change the bin elevation value for this terrain file. x-Wizard reuses many of its prediction result files to enable faster predictions when changes are made. xWizard refers to the date and time stamp of the terrain file to make sure it is still valid with the calculations. When editing and saving the terrain values as shown above, the date and time stamp changes. This invalidates prediction results. Therefore, the next time a prediction analysis is run, x-Wizard must recalculate due to the new terrain file .
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The x-Wizard Hierarchy, Entity Structure, and States
1.1DEFINE A X-WIZARD PROJECT.................................................................................................................. 5 1.2OPENING AN EXISTING PROJECT............................................................................................................. 5 1.3THE USER ID FIELD..................................................................................................................................... 5 1.4UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENT DATABASE PROJECTS........................................................................6 1.5POINTING PROJECTS TO THE CORRECT PATH......................................................................................7 1.6SAVING PROJECTS AND THE SAVE PROJECT AS OPTION................................................................8 1.7COPYING PROJECTS................................................................................................................................... 9 1.8CLOSING PROJECTS................................................................................................................................... 9 1.9CREATE A NEW PROJECT.......................................................................................................................... 9 1.10UPDATING MASTER PROJECTS............................................................................................................ 10 1.11WHAT IS A X-WIZARD PROJECT?.......................................................................................................... 13 1.12THE EDIT PROJECT DIALOG.................................................................................................................. 13 1.13BASIC PROJECT DATA............................................................................................................................ 14 1.14RF PARAMETERS..................................................................................................................................... 15 1.15TECHNOLOGY SPECIFIC DATA.............................................................................................................. 16 1.16FREQUENCY TABLE................................................................................................................................ 17 1.17PERMISSIONS........................................................................................................................................... 17 1.18PROJECT SUMMARY .............................................................................................................................. 18 2.1WINDOW LAYOUTS.................................................................................................................................... 20 2.2THE VIEW WINDOW .................................................................................................................................. 22 2.3THE LEGEND WINDOW .......................................................................................................................... 22 2.4STATUS BAR.............................................................................................................................................. 22 2.5THE TOOL BARS........................................................................................................................................ 23 2.6CUSTOMIZATION OF THE TOOLBAR....................................................................................................... 26 2.7MENU BAR (FILE, EDIT, VIEW).............................................................................................................. 27 2.8X-WIZARD SHORTCUT KEYS ................................................................................................................... 27 3.1THE BIN GRID............................................................................................................................................. 33 3.2TERRAIN FILES.......................................................................................................................................... 33 3.3LOADING TERRAIN.................................................................................................................................... 33 3.4SELECTING TERRAIN................................................................................................................................ 34 3.5VIEWING AND DISPLAYING TERRAIN...................................................................................................... 35 3.6TERRAIN IN THE MAP VIEW ..................................................................................................................... 37 4.1THE ENTITY HIERARCHY.......................................................................................................................... 43 4.2PROJECT MANAGEMENT USING THE ENTITY HIERARCHY STRUCTURE..........................................43 4.3STATUS TYPES.......................................................................................................................................... 44 4.4WORKING AND MANAGING STATUS TYPES..........................................................................................45 39
Optimi Corp 4.5USING COLORS TO DISPLAY ACTIVITY/VISIBILITY STATUS OF ENTITIES.........................................46 4.6THE EDIT ACTIVE MENU ITEM.................................................................................................................. 48 4.7DISPLAYING CELL SITES USING STATUSES ACTIVE BY STATUS...................................................49 4.8DELETING CELL SITES USING STATUSES DELETE BY STATUS......................................................50 4.9USING ACTIVE SETS.................................................................................................................................. 51 4.10USING GROUPS........................................................................................................................................ 51 5.1INTRODUCTION TO THE WIRELESS EXPLORER....................................................................................59 5.2CONTROLLING THE WIRELESS EXPLORER DISPLAY..........................................................................61 5.3CONTEXT MENUS...................................................................................................................................... 63 5.4THE FIND UTILITY...................................................................................................................................... 65 6.1EDITING THE ENTITIES WITHIN A PROJECT........................................................................................... 71 6.2CREATING, EDITING, COPYING, DELETING ENTITIES...........................................................................72 6.3THE EDIT CELL AND SELECTIVE CELL EDIT DIALOG...........................................................................73 6.4EDITING CELLS.......................................................................................................................................... 75 6.5THE TX/RX SPREADSHEET....................................................................................................................... 78 7.1ABOUT MASS EDITING TOOLS................................................................................................................. 96 7.2QUERY AND EDIT....................................................................................................................................... 96 7.3IMPORT EXPORT PROJECT DATA TOOL................................................................................................99 7.4USING THE IMPORT / EXPORT PROJECT DATA FIELDS FOR CREATING CUSTOM SITE REPORTS ........................................................................................................................................................................ 101 7.5OLAP FUNCTIONALITY ........................................................................................................................... 103 8.1COMMON ANALYSIS DATA..................................................................................................................... 111 8.2COVERAGE ANALYSIS............................................................................................................................ 116 8.3ENTITY DISPLAY RESOLUTION.............................................................................................................. 117 8.4DISPLAY BAND COLORS........................................................................................................................ 118 8.5ANALYSIS SPECIFIC BAND COLORS PROJECT LEVEL DISPLAYS. .................................................118 8.6QUICK COVERAGE USING THE SHOW COVERAGE MOUSE MODE BUTTON...................................120 8.7THE LEGEND............................................................................................................................................ 120 9.1WHAT IS CONTROLLABLE IN THE X-WIZARD DISPLAY? ...................................................................124 9.2MAP OPTIONS ........................................................................................................................................ 124 9.3MAP ANNOTATIONS................................................................................................................................ 142 9.4ASSIGNING VALUES TO OBJECTS........................................................................................................ 146 9.5AREA STATISTICS ................................................................................................................................... 149 9.6ZOOM......................................................................................................................................................... 150 9.7 COLOR SCHEMES................................................................................................................................... 151 9.8CHANGING FONT..................................................................................................................................... 153 10.1OVERLAPPING COVERAGE ................................................................................................................. 158 10.2REVERSE LINK....................................................................................................................................... 158 10.3NUMBER OF SERVERS.......................................................................................................................... 159 Essentials of x-Wizard 40
Optimi Corp 10.4PATH LOSS............................................................................................................................................. 159 10.5MOST LIKELY SERVER.......................................................................................................................... 159 10.6JOINT PROBABILITY.............................................................................................................................. 159 10.7LINE OF SIGHT....................................................................................................................................... 160 10.8PREVIOUSLY RUN ANALYSIS............................................................................................................... 161 11.1 MEASURED DATA FUNCTIONALITY................................................................................................... 164 11.2IMPORTING MEASURED DATA............................................................................................................. 164 11.3 VIEWING MEASURED DATA................................................................................................................. 166 11.4 FILTER OR EDIT MEASURED DATA.................................................................................................... 170 11.5 MEASURED DATA ASSOCIATION....................................................................................................... 171 11.6MEASURED DATA SHIFT ...................................................................................................................... 174 11.7COMPARING MEASUREMENTS TO PREDICTIONS.............................................................................174 11.8BATCHED PROPAGATION MODEL OPTIMIZATION............................................................................177 11.9MEASURED VS PREDICTED ANALYSIS............................................................................................... 180 11.10MODEL AVERAGING ........................................................................................................................... 181 11.11EVALUATING THE RESULTS.............................................................................................................. 183 11.12MERGING OF MEASURED DATA INTO PREDICTIONS ....................................................................183 11.13 REMOVE MEASURED DATA ASSOCIATION.....................................................................................185 ....................................................................................................................................................................... 185 12.1WHAT ARE CLUTTER ADJUSTMENTS?............................................................................................... 190 12.2LOADING THE CLUTTER FILE.............................................................................................................. 190 12.3CREATING OR EDITING A CLUTTER ADJUSTMENT FILE..................................................................190 12.4SELECTING CLUTTER AND CLUTTER ADJUSTMENT FILES............................................................192 12.5OPTIMIZING CLUTTER VALUES WITH DRIVE TEST DATA................................................................192 12.6EDITING THE CLUTTER FILE................................................................................................................ 195 12.7DISPLAYING THE CLUTTER FILE......................................................................................................... 195 13.1CHANNEL PLANNING IN X-WIZARD .................................................................................................... 198 13.2CHANNEL PLANNING TERMINOLOGY.................................................................................................198 13.3ASSIGNING FREQUENCY TABLES....................................................................................................... 198 13.4EDITING FREQUENCY TABLES............................................................................................................ 200 13.5CHANNEL PLAN TEMPLATES............................................................................................................... 202 13.6ASSIGNING A CHANNEL TEMPLATE................................................................................................... 203 13.7SELECTING A CHANNEL PLAN............................................................................................................ 203 13.8HOW TO ASSIGN CHANNELS............................................................................................................... 204 13.9SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR IDEN PROJECTS IDEN CHANNEL TEMPLATES..............208 13.10SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR GSM TECHNOLOGY...................................................................209 13.11PN AND SCRAMBLE CODE PLANS FOR CDMA TECHNOLOGIES..................................................210 13.12DISPLAYING CHANNELS AND CHANNEL OPTIONS.........................................................................211 41
Optimi Corp 13.13DISPLAYING CHANNELS BY CHANNEL OR TRANSMITTER...........................................................213 13.14CHANNEL PLAN UTILITIES ................................................................................................................ 215 13.15IMPORTING CHANNELS...................................................................................................................... 216 13.16INTERACTIVE CHANNEL PLANNING.................................................................................................. 219 14.1INTERFERENCE ANALYSIS................................................................................................................... 232 14.2SERVER BY BEST C/I ........................................................................................................................ 232 14.3INTERFERENCE ANALYSIS................................................................................................................... 232 14.4CHANNEL OPTIONS RESTRICTION OF INTERFERENCE...................................................................238 15.1INTRODUCTION TO SMART ANALYSIS...............................................................................................244 15.2DEFINING YOUR ANALYSIS REQUIREMENTS....................................................................................244 15.3THE INTERFACE..................................................................................................................................... 244 15.4INTERPRETING THE EVALUATION RESULTS ....................................................................................248 16.1NEIGHBOR LISTS................................................................................................................................... 251 16.2AUTOMATIC NEIGHBOR LIST GENERATION .....................................................................................251 16.3GEOGRAPHIC DISPLAY OF NEIGHBOR RELATIONS.........................................................................253 16.4NEIGHBOR LIST REPORTS................................................................................................................... 255 16.5IMPORTING NEIGHBOR LISTS ............................................................................................................. 256 17.1APPENDIX I SERVER CALCULATION METHODS AND PROPAGATION DETAILS...........................265 17.2APPENDIX II HIERARCHAL CELL STRUCTURING (HCS) DETAILS ..................................................265 17.3APPENDIX III TURBO (RADIAL) VS. STANDARD PROPAGATION CALCULATION METHODS........271 17.4APPENDIX IV TOWERS AND LOCATION BASED DATA.....................................................................272 17.5APPENDIX V FCC FUNCTIONALITY...................................................................................................... 277 17.6APPENDIX VI PRINTING AND PLOTTING............................................................................................. 281 17.7APPENDIX VII ADDING AND USING REPEATERS...............................................................................287 17.8APPENDIX VIII BEHIND THE SCENES AND PROJECT OPTIMIZATIONS...........................................291 17.9APPENDIX IX UNDERSTANDING USER PERMISSIONS AND CHANGE PETITIONS.........................304 17.10APPENDIX X UNDERSTANDING HOW THE ANALYSIS MANAGER FUNCTIONALITY WORKS.....312 17.11APPENDIX XI COVERAGE QUALITY IMPACT ANALYSIS USABILITY.............................................313 17.12APPENDIX XII PROFILE UTILITY FUNCTION.....................................................................................319
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4.1
The Entity Hierarchy
With a foundation in what makes up a x-Wizard Project, we need to next understand the different network components and how they interact with one another. The data storage and data management method used by x-Wizard is a hierarchical scheme. In this scheme, the project is the highest level, followed by the system, MSC, switch, cell, sector, transmitter, and beam levels respectively. This assumes the use of AMPS/CDMA/TDMA terminology in the project. If not, substitute the correct names. Any one item at any level of the system hierarchy is referred to as an entity. An entity that is one level above another entity is its parent; an entity one level below another entity is its child. The user can assign long descriptive names to all of these entities. The purpose of the entity hierarchy is to provide the tools to organize cells into groups that make sense for RF engineers and other system planners.
The "None" entities are part of every x-Wizard project. None entities are a failsafe device designed in case a parent is not assigned to a newly created entity.
4.2
Project Management using the Entity Hierarchy Structure
The names associated with the scheme were initially meant to represent the typical hierarchical scheme of an operating cellular system. However, because the various levels of the hierarchy above the cell level are not necessarily used to represent the real system hardware, they do not have to be named after network hardware. Projects can be effectively managed within x-Wizard by making use of the hierarchical scheme as desired.
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Optimi Corp Before the project is built, it is important to decide what type of hierarchy nomenclature to use. Cell names may have pre-assigned naming schemes. However, make a decision regarding how those cells are going to be organized within x-Wizard from a project structure standpoint. We have seen many different types of hierarchy schemes in action. You will have to determine what works best for your particular network(s). Some ideas are to base hierarchy on geography, (cells all within a target area) engineer responsibility, (each user gets their own switch) status type, (on-air switches) chronographic, (the year/quarter the site went live). These are all viable options or a combination of these and the actual network hardware names can be used. In the next sub-section, we will look at status types that may be employed as well.
4.3
Status Types
All planning tools need the ability to differentiate entities. An important task, however, is how to have both currently active cells in a project and be able to make changes with ease to see how it will affect the network. x-Wizard uses a combination of the cell name and cell status. If the status type is user specific, x-Wizard also uses the creator. Status types can be thought of as labels of what the entities are currently designed to do. The status is used to uniquely identify an entity. Official, Proposed, What If, and Active, On-Air, Proposed, and budgeted are all examples of status types. Controlling the Name and Status Field for every entity in a project, x-Wizard allows full control of the name and status fields. Each entity of a given level within x-Wizard must have a unique identity. If a creatorspecific status type is in use every time the user creates an entity, the creator field is automatically populated with the ID of the creator when an entity is created. Judicious naming of statuses and configuration of statuses will help manage a wireless system's actual, proposed, and what if configurations. x-Wizard helps by enforcing naming conventions. The x-Wizard naming convention for entities is: NAME|STATUS|Creator (optional) Example: in this case the name of the site is Danville, the status is GSM/GPRS, and the optional creator tag has been used by user John.JAD. Name The Name of the entity, this is up to you and can contain up to 32 characters. Status The status field is used to identify the current state of an entity; Official, Proposed, What If, and Active Q2FY01 are all possible examples. Creator The creator field identifies the user who created this particular entity. The creator field is optional and, if required, will be filled automatically based upon the user ID. Sites that are common to all users of a xWizard project typically will not require a creator. Example: All users may use a cell with an Official status and a configuration that exists in the real world. A cell with a What If status is being evaluated by a particular user. Because more than one user may have a What If copy of the same cell, each one is unique to that user and requires that the creator be specified. The following table represents unique entities: Name Danville Danville Danville Danville Danville Neighbor 44 Status Official What If What If What If Official Creator <None > Josko Elvira Randy <None >
Optimi Corp Danville End of 1998 Robert
Notice in the table above that there are five cells called Danville. Make sure that the cell running analysis or being edited is your intended one by its active state. An entity name with a creator that is not your user ID can still be displayed and used as any other entity.
4.4
Working and Managing Status Types
Select Format > Status Types for the resulting Status Types dialog where statuses are created and modified.
In the Current Status Types section, statuses are listed along with settings for each status. The settings are determined by the selections made in the Status Settings section. Settings for the Official status are highlighted in the example above under the Current Status Types section. The name of the status is Official. Specify Creator is not selected indicating that no entities that have an Official status specify their creators. The two options Edit Original and Make Copy of Entity on Edit using Status determine whether or not entities with the selected status should be directly edited or a copy of the entity should be made. In this case, Edit Copy using Status What If is selected. When an entity with an Official status is edited, it is copied and assigned the What If status. When there are sites that represent actual network implementation, these "Official" sites must be protected from accidentally being deleted or changed. Protect various status types by using the Copy on Edit Mode in the Status Types options. Then there is a further option to designate the status type of the new entity that has been created. Consider the following cell site: Danville | Official Selecting OK in the Cell Data dialog brings up the Edit Confirmation dialog:
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Since the copy status of Official is What If, the status What If is suggested for the new site. Choosing OK will create a copy of the Danville | Official site. An analysis can then be run on the copy without affecting the official site. It is possible to change the New Status to Official (or any other status) in order to write changes directly to the Official cell, however remember that this will overwrite your official data. The above screen shot also shows the use of a Creator that was set as required whenever the What If status is used. The actual Creator is based on the User ID specified when the project was opened. The Edit Confirmation dialog has a checkbox labeled Make Entity Invisible on Copy . If selected, the new entity appears in place of the original entity. The original entity still exists; it just has been made invisible. For example, consider that the dialog above is the result of editing the cell site Danville | Official. The cell site "Danville | What If | MASTER" now appears where "Danville | Official" was. Note that the default state of the Make Entity Invisible on copy is on you can change this by editing the Tools > Options > Global Settings parameters.
4.5

Using colors to Display Activity/Visibility Status of Entities

Active (Yellow) Inactive (Red) Inactive by Parent (Blue) Invisible (Grey)
The Possible Activity states of entities in x-Wizard are (Default Colors):
Only active and visible entities will be included in an analysis , although any activity or visibility status may be shown on screen. In several places throughout x-Wizard, a check box labeled A represents Active status Visible status is represented by a check box labeled V. When selected, the entity is Active or Visible, respectively. Color versus Activity/Visibility Status of Entities the color of the Entity defines the activity/visibility status of that entity. The color schemes are user definable and can be controlled by selecting Format > Color Schemes. The following is a list of the various Activity/Visibility statuses of entities on screen using the default colors: Yellow entities are Active and Visible. Entities must be yellow (Active and Visible) to be included in an analysis Red entities are Inactive and Visible. Blue entities are Inactive due to their parent being inactive . A blue entity may be active but appear blue / inactive due to one of the parents being inactive. Since these entities are not used in an analysis, they are considered inactive for the display. 46
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Gray entities are Invisible For display purposes, whenever an entity is invisible; it is shown in gray, regardless of its activity status. Only cells and transmitters are actually shown on the map view screen. The active/visible status of the cell level is shown in the color of the text (number, name, status, ID, or creator) associated with each cell . The active/visible status of the transmitter level is indicated by the color of the transmitter symbol. If any entity level above the transmitter is made invisible, both the cell and the transmitter levels will be displayed in gray. Controlling the Display of Active/Visible Entities Both Inactive and Invisible entities may either be shown on screen or hidden. Go to the WEX Map Options Tab, expand the Site Display tree and check the Inactive (F11) check box or the F11 shortcut key to toggle the display of inactive entities on the map view. Go to the WEX Map Options Tab, expand the Site Display tree and check Invisible Entities (Ctrl+F11) check box or Ctrl+F11 to simultaneously toggle the display of Invisible entities on the map view. Changing the Activity Status of Entitiesthere are several ways to change the activity states of entities: The activity status of all entities can be controlled using the WEX Wireless Explorer Tab. The color of the entity symbol shown in the Wireless Explorer Tab Edit window corresponds to the color scheme previously described. You may view and change the activity status of all of the entities from any single entity level under the Edit > Active menu item. To make inactive cells active, the inactive cells must be shown on screen. Select the Inactive check box located under the Site Display tree in the WEX Map Options Tab. The F11 key will toggle the display of inactive entities on screen. Activity status at the cell level in Map View To change the activity status of cells with the mouse; use one of three toolbar mode buttons: Activate Deactivate Toggle
*Note Using the above buttons while holding the Control key will change the active status at the TX level
When editing an entity, set its activity status by selecting the Active box in the Edit dialog for that entity. The active status is shown below when editing entities. The Selective Edit for a cell can change the state of the cell edit by holding the Ctrl key down and clicking the mouse on a cell in the map view using the Edit Mode window will set its activity. . Selecting the active box in the Selective Cell Edit
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Other options are to use the Edit > Active by Status command or the Edit > Load Active Set and Edit > Save Active Set commands (see below for examples). Changing the Visibility Status of Entities -- There are a few different ways to change the visibility status of entities. The visibility status of all entities can be controlled in Wireless Explorer (WEX). The color of the entity symbol shown in the WEX Edit window corresponds to the color scheme previously described. When editing an entity, its visibility status can be set in the Edit dialog for that entity. This is shown below when editing entities. To use the Selective Edit tool, hold the Ctrl key down and click the mouse on a cell in the Edit mode. Its visibility can be set by selecting Visible in the Selective Cell Edit window. Use the Edit > Active by status command as described in section 5.8.
4.6
The Edit Active menu item
The Edit > Active menu selection results in the following dialog (a multi-select list box.).
Active entities are highlighted; inactive entities are not highlighted. It is not possible to determine visibility status in this function and it is not possible to determine the real activity status of any entity below the system level because any entitys parent might be inactive. This function shows only the activity status of the instant entity. Essentials of x-Wizard 48
Optimi Corp The Edit > Active box allows you to selectively make entities active. You can specify the entity level with the radio buttons as well as the various entities within the chosen level. Selecting a single entity will cause only that entity to become active and all other entities of that entity level to become inactive. To change the active status of only one entity, hold the Ctrl key while clicking on that entity. It is possible to select multiple sequential entities by holding the Shift key while selecting an entity at one end and an entity at the other end of the desired range. All entities between and including the selected entities will become active all others will become inactive. To cancel this operation, press the Esc key before changing the entity level. Once the entity level is changed or the "Done" feature is executed, the changes made thus far are applied.
4.7
Displaying Cell Sites Using Statuses Active By Status
Cell sites organized by status can be selectively displayed using Edit > Active by Status.
The Target Cells section specifies that all cell sites with the desired status be made Active and Visible. NonTarget cells require that every cell but the Official cells be made Invisible. To achieve this setting, click Display Only or configure the Active and Visible status for each group of cells.
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If a What If status is designated for new sites that are not yet available in the real system, they can be added to the Official entities displayed in the project's map view window. Select What If for the status and press Augment to configure the settings that enable this operation. In the Example above the What If cells are targeted to become both Active and Visible. The Non-Target Cells will become inactive and invisible. There is one significant exception: any Official sites that have the same base name as the What If sites, will be not have their, active or visible states changed.
4.8
Deleting Cell Sites Using Statuses Delete By Status
The Delete by Status functionality allows the user to delete entire groups of entities based on their status types. Select Edit > Delete By Status
The user must have permissions to the status type of the entities to be deleted. Be warned that once deleted in this manner they will be completely removed from the project.
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4.9
Using Active Sets
The Active Set functionality allows the user to save the current active state of all entities and to recall them later. This is sometimes called a snapshot utility. This applies to only the currently active entities in the project. Select Edit > Save Active Set or Ctrl+S. The system will prompt for a name for the active set.
To recall a previously saved active set, select Edit > Load Active Set or Ctrl+L, this results in the Load Active Set dialog When Set Entities to Inactive is selected, the active state of all entities in the project at the cell level and above will be set to inactive prior to loading the selected active set. You may control which entity levels are to be activated by selecting the appropriate levels in the Activate These Entities frame. You can also decide to make the entities that you are de-activating invisible or not by selecting the Set entities to Invisible option. When you select OK, x-Wizard will read the active set file and reset all entities that were active when the active set was saved.
4.10 Using Groups

Groups are used to organize transmitters into logical groups that allow for transmitters to belong to more than one group at a time or to give flexibility for selecting transmitters to include in an analysis that may not belong to any other active set or status type. Groups allow for a dynamic property of each cell/site to permit grouping of cells into any category and sub-category (member) such as cities, zip codes, roaming area locations, or any other group you would like to use. Groups can be used to activate and deactivate TX's, or query on a group to create active sets, or run analysis only on particular groups and/or members. First to create and manage groups, go to Edit > Groups or Ctrl + G. The following dialog is displayed.
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The dialog above shows a single group named Morphology. Members of the Morphology group are Rural, Suburban, and Urban. Note that the Unique (Mutually Exclusive) check is selected. This indicates that a given transmitter can be assigned to Rural, Suburban, or Urban but not more than one. If Unique is unchecked, then multiple members of the same group can be assigned to a transmitter.
4.10.1 Assigning Groups to TXs

To make assignments to transmitters and select transmitters based on group members, choose Edit > Group Assignment/Entity Selection or Ctrl + B.
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Optimi Corp The image above shows that Foxcroft TX 1/UL/SV is selected. With the Assignment radio button selected, the Morphology members are available to be assigned. Choosing (selecting with the checkbox) the urban membership will apply that membership to all of the highlighted Tx's (on the left side) Note when selecting from the member list (checkbox) there are three possible settings: 1. No Selection (unchecked) = Members have not been checked
2. Light Grey Check = Inverse (remove) selection, so if a TX belonged to a member group then the light check box would remove it from that group membership. 3. Black Check TX's = selection or assignment, the full checkbox is used to assign or select the highlighted
For selecting Transmitters that already belong to a group, click the Entity Selection radio button.
Now the Morphology group is expanded to one line for each member. This allows for selection of one or more of the group members. To do so, check the box next to the desired group member to display and press the Apply button.
As a result of clicking Apply in the dialog above, all the transmitters that are either Rural or Suburban are highlighted in the list box on the left. Clicking OK closes the dialog. Activating TXs on the map view based on the group selection There is an Activate button in the Group Assignment & Entity Selection that will allow you to turn on all the TXs that belong to a specific group.
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Optimi Corp It is very important to understand that the Group/Member feature is a TX level feature so the activate button only works on the TX level and not the entire site. To change the active states of the TXs on the Map View use these buttons while holding down the Control key. Activate Deactivate Toggle
In addition you can also use the edit > active, tool to reactive or deactivate any TXs changed by the group selection dialog.
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Using the Wireless Explorer with Entities
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5.1
Introduction to the Wireless Explorer
The Wireless Explorer (WEX) allows for manipulation of project data in a tree structure: The WEX appears in a split window with the geographic display of an edit window, and it is divided in three Tabs, the Wireless Explorer Tab, the Map Options Tab, and the Menu Favorite Tab. Select View > Explorer Bar> Show/Hide Explorer Bar or use the Ctrl+E shortcut to toggle the display on and off. To toggle back to the Wireless Explorer Tab from the Map Options or Menu Favorite Tabs use the Ctrl + W shortcut key.
The Wireless Explorer TAB, this example shows the symbols associated with each level of the entity hierarchy. In this example, the project contains multiple entities at various hierarchical or entity levels. Some may share the same entity level while others may be parents or children. Sectors are always shown as Sector n where "n" is the sector number as assigned by the user. Transmitters are always shown as TX n/x/SV where the first "n" represents the sector number of its parent sector and "x" represents the tier number as specified by the user. SV shows that the user has selected both the setup (control) and voice (traffic) options.
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Optimi Corp The Menu Options The x-Wizards Map Options tab allows to displays map layers. The layers include sites, grids, picture files, mapping, images, location data, and legend information.
The Menu Favorites The x-Wizards Menu Favorites tab allows you to configure favorite menu commands, similar to how Internet Explorer Favorites and Mozilla Firefox Bookmarks do with HTTP access, for easy access. With a simple copy/paste or dragging/dropping of menu options to the Menu Favorite folder you will have access to your favorite menus in one single location for you to access with one click.
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5.2
Controlling the Wireless Explorer Display
To select multiple entities: Use the mouse in conjunction with either the Shift key or the Ctrl key. The Shift key is used to select multiple entities that are contiguous in the Wireless Explorer. Without holding any keys, left-click on the first desired entity at either the top or bottom of the desired selection list While holding the Shift key, select the entity at the other end of the desired list using the left mouse button. Note that all entities at all entity levels between and including the two entities will be selected. The Ctrl key is used to select multiple entities that are not contiguous in the Wireless Explorer. While holding the Ctrl key, click on the desired entities using the left mouse button. Deselect entities by clicking on them again with the Ctrl key held down. 61
Optimi Corp When first starting the Wireless Explorer, the screen may not look quite like the example in the last section. The display of inactive and invisible entities in the Wireless Explorer mirrors that of the map view. If inactive entities are shown in the Map view, they will be shown in the Wireless Explorer, If not, they wont show up in the WEX. The same rule applies to Invisible entities. As with the Map view, Inactive and Invisible entities can be viewed by checking invisible or inactive check boxes located in the Map Options Tab under the Display tree or using the short cut keys F11 (toggle inactive) and Ctrl+F11 (invisible).
Note that Invisible entities may be Active, Inactive, or Inactive-by-Parent. Still, these entities will not be used in an analysis. Entities that have a + symbol in front of them have children that are not displayed.
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To expand an entity to show its children, select the + symbol. Entities that have a - symbol in front of them are already expanded to show their children. To contract an entity to hide its children, select the - sign, or use the shortcut keys found in the table of sub section 3.9. Functions within the Wireless Explorer The Wireless Explorer uses context-sensitive menus that are accessed by pressing the right mouse button. The context of the menu that is displayed will vary based on the entity or entities selected.
5.2.1 Wireless Explorer Options

You can have more control over how x-Wizard displays the entities in the Wireless Explorer. By default x-Wizard will show the Inactive \ Invisible sites in the WEX based on Map Option Tab Site Display selections. The Wireless Explorer Options dialog allows overriding that default selection. Select View > Explorer Bar > Wireless Explorer Options menu to access the following dialog.
These options will let you override the current project settings by letting you choose to display, or not display the Inactive and/or Invisible entities. Selecting to override the project settings will make x-Wizard ignore the display setting specified in the WEX Map Options tab and always show or not show the entities based on the settings in the Wireless Explorer Options Dialog.
5.3
Context Menus
Context Menus with a Single Entity SelectedThere are several possible menu items that may appear on the context-sensitive menu with a single entity selected. The available menu items change depending on whether or not that entity level is selected and whether a channel plan is currently loaded New Child Entitythis menu item is used to create or add a new child entity under the selected entity. The table below describes the actual menu item that appears based on the level of the selected entity and the associated function. Selected Entity Project System MSC Switch Menu Item New System New MSC New Switch New Cell Function Adds a new System entity Adds a new MSC entity Adds a new Switch entity Adds a new Cell entity
The following picture shows the menu options available when performing a right mouse click at the Sytem Level Entity. 63
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Zoom this function zooms the map view to contain the selected entity or entities. If the selected entity contains children, the zoomed area will contain all of those children. If the project is the selected entity, the map view is zoomed to the project bounds. Add to Zoom this function adds the currently selected entities to the current zoom by expanding the zoom to fit the current zoom and the additional entities. Query clicking on this will launch the global query utility. Please see Section 8, Editing Tools, for an explanation of this utility. Active this function toggles the active state of the currently selected entity. A check appears before the menu text if the selected entity is currently active. This function is not available at the Project level; if the selected entity is the Project, this menu item does not appear. Visible this function toggles the visible state of the currently selected entity. A check appears before the menu text if the selected entity is currently visible. Since the visible state is not applicable to the Project or to Sector or Transmitter level entities, this menu item does not appear if the selected entity is Project, Sector or Transmitter level. Delete this function deletes the selected entity and all of its children. A confirmation dialog appears before any entities are deleted. This function is not available if the selected entity is the Project or the special System, MSC, or Switch entities named NONE. Rename this function is used to rename the selected entity. It is not available if the selected entity level is Project, Sector or Transmitter or if the entity is a special System, MSC, or Switch entity named NONE. Edit this function is used to edit the selected entity. The appropriate entity edit dialog will be displayed. Find this function is use to help you find specific entities in large projects. It can also be access by using the Ctrl + F hotkey. Depending on the entity selected other menu options will be available, for example. Extra Menu Options at Cell Level
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Optimi Corp Copy this function displays the Cell Data dialog to allow for making a copying of the selected cell . This method is simpler than the add method if items such as antennas, tower data and ERP are standardized within the system. Extra Menu Options at Transmitter Level Edit Radios if a channel plan is loaded and the selected entity is a Transmitter level entity, then the Edit Channel Plan dialog will be shown for that transmitter. This function is fully described in Section 14, Channel Planning in x-Wizard. Associate Measured Data this menu item is only available if the selected entity is a Transmitter level entity. When selected, it launches the Measured Data Association x-Wizard that will step you through the process of making your imported measured data for the Transmitter selected available in the WEX. This will be discussed more in Section 13 Measured Data Integration.
5.3.1 Context Menus with Multiple Entities Selected

Set All Active/Inactive this function sets all selected entities to the either the active or the inactive state. This function is available to all entities. Set All Visible/Invisible this function sets all selected entities to the visible or invisible state. This function is not available if the project or any sectors or transmitters are included in the selected set. Delete this function deletes the selected entities and their children. A confirmation dialog is presented before the deletion of any entities. This function is not available if the set of selected entities contains the Project or any Sector or Transmitter entities. Edit this option will only be available if all of the selected entities are cells. If you choose to use the multiple edit features of the query and edit tool as described in Section 8, Editing Tools, the edit option provides a way to bypass the preliminary query. x-Wizard is designed to assume that the selected cells are target cells to edit.
5.4
The Find Utility
The Find Utility is a utility that will let you instantly find an entity in the WEX. It is most useful in large projects where navigating the WEX can be time consuming. The find utility is accessible in one of four ways: Short cut keys Ctrl + F Edit > Find menu option Right-click Mouse menu in the map Right-click Mouse menu in the WEX To use the Find Utility you must first select the Level you want to search at, and then start typing the name of the entity in the Name field. You do not need to type the entire entity name; the find utility will give you all possible entities at that level. *Note you can use the find utility to search based on the site name or ID depending on your setting for the wireless explorer options. In addition, you can search for an address in the Microsoft Map Point database if you have Microsoft MapPoint installed.
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Editing the Entities within a Project
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6.1
Editing the Entities within a Project
Now that you understand the different entity levels, you are able to build or add on to our project. Next we will learn how to edit these entities to make changes to our projects based on our needs or requirements. The following sections introduce the different methods available to edit existing project components.
6.1.1 Edit MSC, System, Switch

Edit functions are performed in the same manner for MSCs or switches. The system level is the same for both except that the parent for a system is always the project. The parents of MSCs and switches are user selectable. The MSC level is described here. Select Edit > MSC within the Edit MSC dialog, the MSC level entity can be created, edited, renamed, or deleted. To display inactive or hidden entities, the Show Inactive Entities or Show Invisible Entities features must be selected.
Editing an MSC Select the desired entity from the list of entities or by utilizing the keyword search function. This function allows selection of an entity by typing the name of the desired entity into the keyword search text box. As each character is entered, the closest match will appear as the selected entity. When the desired entity is shown in the name box, select edit:
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Optimi Corp Name when adding a new MSC, a x-Wizard long descriptive name can be entered in this text box. The number of MSCs within a project is at the user's discretion. Remember that the purpose of the x-Wizard entity hierarchy is to organize the project into manageable pieces. ID Assign a short name or number, this field is optional. Active this feature directs either the active or the inactive state for the selected entity. Visible this feature directs either the visible or the invisible state for the selected entity. Display Styles selecting this option produces the display styles dialog allowing you to set your own custom display output. Parent this allows you to select the parent of this entity. For systems, the parent is the project. For MSCs, the parent list will contain all of the systems in the project. For switches, the parent list will contain all of the MSCs in the project.
6.2
Creating, Editing, Copying, Deleting Entities
Select Edit System > New to launch the following dialog box. When entering the new System information.
You can begin entering the System Data at this point. Notice the Frequency Table and Template option at the system level. Setting these would override the Frequency table and/or templates assigned at the Project level. You will also have the same option at the Switch level entity The system level is also used to assign a Frequency Table or Template to a particular system. This is most common in projects that use dual bands such as 850 MHz and 1900 MHz in the same market. See Section 13, Channel Planning for more information on this. Deleting an Entity from the Edit menu, select MSC, from the list of MSCs displayed, select the one to delete. If there are no switches under this MSC, x-Wizard will ask for confirmation. If there are switches under this MSC, the following will appear:
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To delete all children and descendants, select Yes. This will delete the MSC and all of the child entities belonging to this MSC. Otherwise, select No. Careful! x-Wizard does not have an undo feature or a recycling bin. Once an entity or its children are deleted, they are GONE! Renaming an Entity from the Edit menu, select MSC, from the list of existing MSCs, select the one to rename and enter a new name in the name edit box for this MSC. A new status may be set for this entity. Click OK to rename the system or Cancel to ignore.
6.3
The Edit Cell and Selective Cell Edit Dialog
The Edit Cell and Selective Cell Edit dialogs have the exact same functionality. Edit Cell contains a complete list of the cells within the project. Access the Edit Cell dialog by selecting the Edit > Cell menu item. Edit Cell Menu Select cell from the edit drop-down list to change a cells name and configuration data.
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The combination of cell name, status, and creator is the unique cell identifier. If the cell name is changed in the cell data dialog, you will create a copy of the old cell data with the new information. Selective Cell Edit contains a subset of the cells within the project. The Selective Cell Edit dialog is accessed by placing the mouse in the edit mode, holding the Ctrl key and selecting a cell or cells on the geographic display with the mouse.
The Name, Status and Creator boxes show the currently selected cell Keyword search As the letters are typed, the nearest match from the list of cells is shown as the selected cell. The list is scrolled to show that cell. Select Clear to clear the Keyword Search text box. Sort the cells in the list by ID, Name, Status, or Creator by selecting the heading of the desired sort column. To locate cells by their ID, sort on the ID field and scroll down to the desired cell. Change the Active and Visible status of each cell by clicking on the appropriate Active or Visible options. A cell can be selected by clicking on the ID, Name, Status, or Creator fields of that cell. If the Show Inactive Entities option is selected, inactive entities will be included in the list. If the Show Invisible Entities option is selected, invisible entities will be included in the list. Click Edit to edit the selected cell. If no cell is selected, Edit is disabled. Essentials of x-Wizard 74
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Click New to create a new cell. Use Rename to change the name or status of the selected cell. If no cell is selected, Rename is disabled; Done closes this dialog. Delete is used to delete the selected cell. If no cell is selected, Delete is disabled. A confirmation will always be required before the cell is deleted. *Remember that x-Wizard does not have an Undo feature or a Recycle Bin.
6.4
Editing Cells
At this point, we can begin to add cell sites to a project. Much of the data that x-Wizard uses to calculate the different predictions are contained within the Cell Data dialog. For this reason, it is vital to understand the different fields and options in this dialog. A new cell can be created in a number of ways. Since a new cell can be created with the copy function of the toolbar, it is included in this section. Add Point and click near the new location, then click again to drop the cell into a new location. Virtually all of the cell data except for the location data must be entered when this function is used. Copy Point and click on an existing cell. Then, move the mouse and click to drop the cell into a new location. This method is simpler than the add method if items such as antennas, tower data and ERP are standardized within the system. Edit Mouse (action) Mode Using one of the mouse mode features (box, elliptical, circular), click and drag to select one or several cells for editing. This is an alternative method to access the cell data dialog. All of these methods result in a display of the Cell Data dialog that follows.
Help may be accessed by selecting Help on the toolbar or by pressing F1 within x-Wizard. Help will page through the description of each of the fields in the Cell Data dialog.
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Optimi Corp The Cell Name field is the field that the site name component in the database uses. It is the first part of the Name|Staus|UserID combination that makes up the unique name. Changing the name will create a new cell when OK is selected. Cell names can contain up to 32 characters. Enter the Cell ID in the ID box. Enter the number (Num) to be displayed for the cell. (Optional) The site can be made Active or Inactive, Visible or Invisible using the checkboxes in this screen. The Use checkbox next to the elevation field is an on or off switch that tells x-Wizard to either use the terrain file elevation at that LAT/LON, (checked) or to use a manually entered terrain elevation value (unchecked). By default x-Wizard uses what ever is in the Elevation box here to run analysis, you can change this by going to the Edit > Parameters > Propagation and selecting your model. Once you have the model open you should see the following section that will allow you to set how you want x-Wizard to handle the elevation of your sites
. To enter or change the location of the cell, input the LAT and LON information in the appropriate fields. Remember by changing the LAT and LON you will move the site. Select FCC to edit the FCC data for this cell. Select Tower to edit the FCC data for this cell. Note that the information provided here will also be used to auto populated the FCC forms in x-Wizard. Please see the Appendix III, FCC Functionality, for more information. The CF button in the site data screen will bring you to the Custom Field assignment for the site
Enter the Value of the Custom Field (groups) that you want for this site under the Value column as shown:
If you do not yet have your Custom Fields created you can add them to your project by using the Edit > Custom Fields (Control + C) from the x-Wizard file menu. Note you can add Custom Fields to more than one site by using the query or import functions discussed in section 8 Mass Editing. In the Display Styles for Cell section, the current display styles are shown in the eight black boxes. Select Use to Use these styles or Change to change these styles. Note this will only change the display when youre viewing the entity display resolution at the Cell/BTS level and if the display styles option is turned on in the control display option. 76
Optimi Corp Enter the distances to calculate analyses data in the Calculation Distances section of the Cell Data dialog. Note these are radial distances and not diameters. Each value is independent so you can customize the exact calculation area. The smaller the calculation area the faster an analysis will run, however if it is too short then you may not see all the interference from other sites. The propagation parameters may be changed in the Propagation Parameters section of the Cell Data dialog. The name of the parameter setting is displayed in the edit control. By default, the project's values are used. The selected propagation file is only used if the Use Cell Parameters box is selected; when it is cleared, the project parameter file is always used. Click View to examine the propagation parameter settings. The parameters can be further modified by setting specific terrain and/or clutter files for the cell and/or assigning slope by angle characteristics to the cell. To do this, select Use Additional and click Additional to view the settings.
*A cell level terrain file of higher resolution can be assigned in the additional parameters. This can be helpful if there are specific cells that require high-resolution terrain for the calculation distances.
Chan Space (Channel Spacing) is used for the Permissions Matrix. Grid Position refers to the grid number in a regular hexagon grid arrangement, but is not used anywhere in x-Wizard. Channel Spacing refers to the allowable distance between channel assignments at the same cell. The cell type defaults to Macrocell. Macrocell and microcell are the only two cell types that currently have meaning in x-Wizard. To use the Microcell type you must have the microcell module. As previously described, the Status field is used along with the cell name and creator to uniquely identify the cell in the project. The Creator field is used along with the Cell name and Status field to uniquely identify the cell in the project when a creator-specific status type is used The Parent field indicates the cell's parent, or switch, in the entity hierarchy. Use the parent drop-down list to assign the cell to a new parent. Site attachments allow you to link a site to any number of files for information purposes. The attachment interface lets you browse to any file either on your network, you local computer or even a url location on the internet.
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You can either manually enter the name and location of the file to attach in the "Add" line or simply browse to the file using the Browse button. Once selected clicking the Add button will add the file to the attachment list. Highlighting one of the files in the attachment list and clicking on the Open option will launch the file, as long as that file type is associated to your computer. As an example, if you select an Excel Spreadsheet that you have attached you can highlight it and select Open. If your computer has Excel installed then the file will be opened for you in Excel. The Notes field is for record keeping. Clicking on the Notes button will open up a small notepad program that you can paste text data in.
6.5
The TX/RX Spreadsheet
Transmitter/Receiver data is displayed and changed in the TX/RX spreadsheet found in the bottom half of the cell data dialog. The spreadsheet consists of six sections: Antenna, RF, Radio, Display, Thresholds, and FCC Contours. Each section corresponds to a button beneath the spreadsheet. Clicking the button will display the corresponding area of the spreadsheet.
6.5.1 General
Adding Transceiversto add a new transceiver to the TX/RX spreadsheet you must first specify the Sec #, then the A-S-V-T-R configuration, the antenna type, Rad Center, and finally ERP. A - The active state indicator is selected for active and cleared for inactive. S This is selected if this antenna is a setup (control) transmitter. V This is selected if this antenna is a voice (traffic) transceiver. T This is selected if this antenna is a transmitter. R This is selected if this antenna is a receiver. Sec # (Sector Number) is also called antenna face or face. HCS Tierthis is sometimes referred to as logical face or server group. The higher the HCS tier number, the more preferred the transmitter would be under the Most Likely Server analysis. For an inner/outer transmitter arrangement, assign a higher value to the outer transmitter. Zero is the lowest priority. Please see the propagation details appendix for more information on HCS.
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Optimi Corp SB Select SB if the transmitter uses a switched beam antenna. Switched beam antennas are only available if the version of x-Wizard being used contains the switched beam module. Antenna Type to launch the antenna utility, click the button to the right of the Antenna Type field . The antenna utility has many options to fit individual needs. The following pages explain the antenna utility in some detail. The Antenna Utility x-Wizard contains an antenna utility that provides functionality for the user to create, select, edit, view, and delete antennas.
Select Antenna Search Specifications or Manufacturer Search Specifications to search for desired antenna characteristics. Select one or more manufacturers by using the mouse and the Ctrl or Shift keys. After selecting the desired characteristics, click Find Now at the top of the dialog box. This will narrow the field of selectable antennas shown at the bottom of the screen. To use the search criteria, select New Search then Find Now. To save the search criteria as the default antenna criteria, first make the search, and then select Options > Save Search Criteria. This will become the new search criterion until the next save. When an antenna is selected at the bottom of the dialog, you may view, print, edit, or delete the pattern. Select the appropriate menu item under the antenna menu or right click on the appropriate function. To view the characteristics of a particular antenna, select the antenna. This will provide access to the antenna options menu. Next, select Antennas > Properties from the drop-down list. The following screen will be displayed.
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You can view or modify the tabulated horizontal and vertical patterns and any other pertinent antenna information in this screen. If you are an antenna guru you might have the need to modify the horizontal pattern. If so, youll find the ability to automatically populate the maximum and minimum gain values helpful. Select Save to save changes or Cancel to exist this screen without saving changes. The dialog image above shows the Get button. Pressing this reads through the horizontal pattern data and then populates the Maximum Gain and Minimum Gain fields appropriately. Optimi does not verify the accuracy of the patterns in the x-Wizard antenna database. These patterns were supplied to us or created from tabular data by the antenna manufactures. If you require a particular antenna that you cannot find, or if you question the validity of a pattern, please contact the antenna manufacturer, or contact x-Wizard support to see if there is an updated pattern available. An Audit function does exist that will you to verify if the 0 and 180 readings match according to the antenna manufacture. The audit utility was created to help you find errors or mismatched data points in the x-Wizard antenna pattern files. To access the Antenna Audit utility you must first select one or more antennas and right-click on them. To select more than one at a time you must have had to start the Antenna Utility from Tools > Antenna Utility It is important to note that the more antennas you select the longer it will take the audit report to complete. The Audit Report screen is used to look at the selected antennas and display mis-matched data points. The first spreadsheet displays the manufacturer, model, description, filename and mismatches at 0 and 180.
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Antennas will be displayed in one of the two spreadsheets that the audit tool generates. Patterns are assigned to the upper spreadsheet If: The antenna is orthogonal *AND* Has valid measurements on 0 and 180 degree *AND* There is a mismatch at 0 and/or 180 degrees of more than 1 dB The points listed are at the 0 degree and 180 degree readings of the antenna pattern. The patterns are read on both planes (Horizontal and Vertical) and the points are compared by the audit routine. If any point has more than 1dB difference on it will be listed in the audit report. Antennas are listed in the lower spreadsheet if: The antenna is not orthogonal, has no azimuth 0 and 180 present *OR* There is no value present at 0 and 180 degree If an antenna has an azimuth at its vertical angle other than 0 and 180, such as 15, the 15 azimuth will not be audited, just the 0 and 180. You can use the Save to File option to make an Excel (.xls) spreadsheet report for archiving Select an antenna from the toolbar and an available pattern from the drop-down list. Viewing the Antenna Pattern From the Pattern Properties window or from the right click menu you can view antenna patterns in either 2D or 3D layouts
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From within this screen, the 3-D View frame provides options for changing the display of the 3-D pattern. Dragging the X-axis line on the display with the mouse can also modify the 3-D pattern view. The 2D View frame provides tilt, elevation, and azimuth options for viewing the 2-D pattern. Selecting Print will print the 2-D patterns only, not the 3-D pattern. When printing, you are offered the opportunity to add three title lines to the printout. The Done option dismisses this screen. Now that we have selected an antenna, we may continue with the TX/RX spreadsheet. Use NCA & NCA Button - You can set up the use of Non-Co-Located Antennas. If you select this you can specify the Lat & Long for this particular Transmitter. This is most common with building mounted antennas where each face of the antenna may be on different sides of the building. It is also important to know that xWizard will still use the calculation distance from the site data above. Rad Center Radiation Center, AGL, is the antenna height above ground level. Azimuth Azimuth is the direction of the center beam. Use zero to represent north, 90 to represent east, and so on. Tilt Tilt specifies the angle of mechanical tilt in downward degrees. Down-tilt is a positive number; up-tilt is a negative number. Sector Width the sector width of a transmitter is measured in degrees of arc. This arc defaults to the manufacturers specifications. ERP ERP is calculated on the reference ERP and the adjusted dB value from the power budget. This value is in watts. Add to Favorite - Antenna Favorites enables quick access to preferred antennas by presenting a subset of the Wizard antennas as favorites. From the right click menu you can select the Add to Favorites option to add the selected or multiple selected antennas to the Favorite list. Antennas may also be removed from the Favorite list by doing a right click on a Favorite antenna and selecting the Remove from Favorite option. 82
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In the Antenna Editor Favorite Antennas are identified with a Y (for Yes) in the Favorites (Fav.) column, shown below.
This Antenna Favorite list can be access directly in the TX/RX Spreadsheet area of the Cell Data Dialog.
Sub Cell Support - Sub cells refer to underlay/overlay that share the same antenna. Wizard allows modeling underlay/overlay by using the HCS/Tier Field or using the Sub Cell option in the Antenna Type . Using the HCS/Tier field the user requires to define two sector entries, one for the overlay and one for the underlay. Utilizing the Sub Cell option it allows the user to combine sectors into one where an underlay/overlay pair shares a common antenna.
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Selecting the Sub Cell Option immediately displays the Sub Cell Selection dialog allowing to chose the transmitter to be use as a Sub Cell.
The selected Sub Cell sector will then be changed as Sub Cell in the TX/RX Spreadsheet area of the Cell Data as shown bellow.
Now changes to the physical configuration of sector 1 affect the sector 2, because theyre sharing the same antenna!
6.5.2 RF Section
Click Power Budget (B) in the RF section of the Cell Edit dialog to access the RF Power Budget. This power budget dialog allows specification of various power adjustments for the transmitter. The power budget is used to input all gains and losses related to the cell site or link.
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Optimi Corp The RF power budget functionality in x-Wizard allows you to create transmit and receive RF power budgets. The power budgets can be printed for use by the technician to set up the cell site and for information archival purposes. x-Wizard uses the power budget for the creation of path imbalance reports, uplink coverage analyses, and combined uplink/downlink coverage analyses. In the transmitters section of the cell edit dialog, the fourth and fifth columns are labeled T and R. If T is selected, that transceiver is deemed a transmitting device. If R is selected, that transceiver is deemed a receiving device. The RF Power Budget dialog will have power budget tabs available relative to the selections made in the T and R columns.
If both the T and R columns are selected for a particular transmitter, selecting B in the cell data box results in the following dialog:
Note that this dialog contains tabbed pages for both the TX Budget and RX Budget. This is because both the T and R columns were selected for this transceiver. The TX budget is initially filled with only the power amplifier and antenna information. The RX budget is initially filled with only the receiver sensitivity and antenna information. Select the appropriate power budget page by clicking on its tab. Power Budget Components You can add components to the database, to the currently displayed TX or RX power budget, or to both. First, select an existing component and then select Add Component. When added to the RF power budget, the new component will be added in the line above the currently selected component. To access the add component functionality, right-click on an existing component (you must click on the Item column of the existing component) and select Add Component from the context-sensitive menu.
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RF Power Budget Components -- User-defined component types may classify RF power budget devices. Component types are used to allow the categorization of specific devices. Suggested component types include coax, jumpers, amplifiers, combiners, and receivers. The specific devices of that type are within a particular component type. For example, under the component type heading Coax, the available devices might be Andrews LDF 4-50A, Andrews LDF 5-50A, and Andrews LDF 7-50A. Under the component type heading Combiners, the available devices might be 8 Channel, 12 Channel, or 16 Channel Auto-Tune. RF power budget components may have either a loss or a gain. Components that have a net gain might include tower-top amplifiers and receiver multi-couplers. The loss of a component is either fixed or per length. Fixed losses are taken consistently for a particular component. If the component losses are per length, you must specify the length of the component in the RF power budget for that particular transmitter. You can also use the Power Budget to model non-hardware attenuations, such as building penetration losses, or Fade Margins. Adding a New Component to the Database -- To add a new component type, simply enter the desired component type. To add a specific device under the new component, first enter the new component type in the new specific device. After specifying the component type and specific device, specify the loss (-) or gain (+) and whether the loss is fixed or per length. If the loss is per length, specify the units and length for which the loss is to be taken. The length specified here is used to determine the loss-per-length only. The actual length of coax used will be specified in the RF power budget when this component is selected. If the losses for the selected component are length-based, enter the length associated with that component. To add this component to the database of available components, you MUST select save. If you click OK without first selecting save, this component will be added to the RF power budget you are working on, but the component will not be added to the component database and it will not be available for selection in other RF power budgets. Modifying a Component in the Database -- Modifying the loss for a component in the database of available components will only affect subsequent use of that component. It will not modify the loss for that component where it has already been assigned in an RF power budget. Deleting a Component from the Database --To delete a component from the list of available components, select File > Delete. Select Global and RF Power Budget Component from the drop down list. Select the components to be deleted using Ctrl and Shift keys if necessary, and click Delete. Adding an Existing Component to the RF Power Budget -- To select from the available components, choose Add Component as described above. When the component properties dialog appears, select a 86
Optimi Corp component type, then select the specific device and click OK. That component will then be added to the RF power budget above the selected component. Modifying a Component in the RF Power Budget -- The loss of a component that is already in an RF power budget can be modified by clicking the dB column entry for that component and modifying the dB value. The modified loss will be applied ONLY to the RF power budget that has been changed. It will NOT affect the same item used in other transceivers. Modifying the length of a component whose loss is length-dependent will result in an automatic loss adjustment from that component. Modifying the loss of a length-dependent component will result in an automatic length adjustment to that component. To select a component to be replaced, right click the component and select Properties from the contextsensitive menu. Next, select the desired replacement component and click OK. Removing a Component from the RF Power Budget --To remove a component from an RF power budget, right click the component and select Remove Component from the context-sensitive menu. The Reverse Order Button option reverses the order of the displayed RF power budget. The reverse order function can also be accessed from within the RF power budget by right clicking on the dialog and selecting Reverse Order from the context-sensitive menu. The Copy from TX Button is used to copy the RF power budget from one transmitter to another. This can save significant time if the components are standardized.
Select the appropriate transceiver to copy and click OK. The RF power budget information from that transmitter will then be copied into the RF power budget of the current transceiver. The Copy from TX function does NOT copy the antenna from the selected transceiver. The Copy from TX function can also be accessed by right-clicking the RF power budget and selecting Copy from TX from the context-sensitive menu.
6.5.2.1 Program Options (tecc.ini settings)

Adding a component or changing the loss for a component in the RF power budget screen results in a change to the ERP for this transmitter. However, changing the antenna is different. An entry in the Tools > Options > Global Project Settings file (GUI to the tecc.ini) controls whether changing the antenna affects the ERP or the PA power output. This entry is as follows: Only Update ERP: ON = The PA power is not adjusted. OFF = The ERP and PA power is adjusted Another entry in the Tools > Options > Global Project Settings is the option to choose whether or not to Change Power Budget to Match ERP. This option is used when importing a power budget from the Import / Export utility. You have the option to make sure that your ERP remains constant when you are importing a new power budget. This was implemented because you may have previously just supplied x-Wizard with the ERP Essentials of x-Wizard 87
Optimi Corp of a given TX in the Cell/BTS data screen and now are adding in your power budget components. This entry is as follows: Change Power Budget to Match ERP: ON = When importing your power budget; the PA power will be adjusted to match the current ERP assigned to the TX OFF = All components (including the PA) will be calculated and the ERP for the TX will be adjusted to the new calculated value. Make sure the Check boxes are clearly checked or not checked depending on how you want them to work. The grayed checkbox means that the value is set to defaultwhich you may not want. Now that we have entered link or power budgets, we will continue with the RF data for this sector. Feed Lines -. This field is a record only field. It is used to model the total number of feed lines to a given sector, such as TX, RX, and RX diversity, etc. for the same sector. Each antenna is fed by a different cable (or feed lines) also, one dual polarized antenna is also fed by two feed cables: one for each pole Propagation Parameters - This field displays the propagation parameter files assigned to the transmitter. If no assignment has been made, it will read (Use Project Value). Note the USE check box must be selected to use the specific parameter file at the Transmitter level. If not x-Wizard will look to the cell level or to the project level.
Merge MD - This checkbox option controls the merging of Measure Data (drive test data) into the predicted coverage. It provides three options Overlay, Ignore and Interpolate. For the bins that have measured data the map view will display the measured data for that bin. The rest of bins will display the predicted result using the propagation model parameters. Selecting the interpolate option will interpolates measured signal values to the bins without measurements. Bins closer to drive test measurements will have values more similar to measured, while as the distance from the measurement increases, the similarity gradually diminishes. Interpolation is automatically executed for any transmitter with associated measured data when the Interpolate option is selected from the transmitter section of the Cell Data dialog. See Merging Measured Data with Predictions for more details As with the cell level, the propagation model may also be transmitter specific. For example, if a sectored transmitter contains transmitters that each point to a different morphology types, each sector can be assigned its own propagation parameter.
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View Params (V) - Select this option to invoke the Propagation Parameters dialog to view the settings for this transmitter. Clutter Type - a specific clutter file can be assigned to the TX level. Assigning a TX level clutter file will override the Site level or Project level assignment for the calculation of the TX Clutter Adjustment - a specific clutter adjustment file can be assigned to the TX level. Assigning a TX level clutter adjustment file will override the Site level or Project level assignment for the calculation of the TX Technology Band - The technology band drop down is a TX level assignment used to define if a TX belongs to a specific band or technology. To support the multi-carrier / multi-band nature of the IRAT UMTS/GSM neighbor list generation, a sector level data called Technology Band is available in the Wizard database. The available bands will be retrieved from Wizards COMMON\BANDS.DAT file. This file contains a list of bands per technology. This file can be updated to reflect the desired naming conventions of the bands for each technology. By default, unassigned technology will have <Not Selected> technology assigned to the sectors. This field can be queried via query/edit.
6.5.3 Radio Section

The radio property dialog allows you to define the radios belonging to a transmitter. Radios can be created, edited, and deleted in this dialog. Technology This field lists the type of radio technology used by this transmitter. Supported technologies are AMPS/TDMA, CDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, iDEN, Repeater, 1X-EvDO, UMTS_FDD, and WiMax. Radios This field lists the number of radios that exist under this transmitter. It is a read-only field. The number of radios at this transmitter determines what is displayed here by reading the Channel Plan. It displays in different colors depending on over or under utilization of your radios. See Section 15, Channel Planning in x-Wizard for more details. Edit Channels Click on to invoke the radio properties dialog more detail on the radio functions is offered is Section 14 Channel Planning. Tech Data (T) this field will let you enter traffic data for this sector. This field is used for traffic analysis in xWizard if you have the optional traffic module. Note: the Voice Traffic units are in mE (milli-Erlangs) and the Data Traffic is entered in bytes per second.
Groups (G) - This section can be used to assigning any TX to a group. See the Group Section for more details. Custom Field (CF) Selecting the CF option brings up the Assigned Custom Field Dialog for the transmitter level. 89
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Enter the Value of the Custom Field (groups) that you want for this transmitter under the Value column as shown:
If you do not yet have your Custom Fields created you can add them to your project by using the Edit > Custom Fields (Control + C) from the x-Wizard file menu. Note you can add Custom Fields to more than one site by using the query or import functions discussed in section 8 Mass Editing. Sector ID in Switch or Cell ID in BSC This field represents the transmitter as known by the network (BSC/OMC/NEM/Switch) software. This field must be populated in order to import channel plans from switch data. Each NEM will have a different format for this information. x-Wizard support can help you populate this field with the correct data. It is a good idea to fill in this field as you create the sectors or when you first set up your project. It is much easier to populate this as you go than to fill it in after you have a thousand transmitters in your project.
6.5.4 Display
Nom Rad Nominal Radius is used to represent the transmitter radius in the Edit window. This number represents the radius measurement in miles of the sector. This display in the map view is multiplied by the scaling factor specified in the Site Display Property Dialog which can be accessible by means of the Map Options Tab > Site Display section and selecting the Properties Option available after performing a right mouse click. Use the use field follows display styles for this transmitter Display Styles (Change) Select Change to invoke the Display Styles dialog for the transmitter Band 1 through Band 8 Display style settings for the eight display bands
6.5.5 Thresholds
Minimum Serving Signal the lowest signal level x-Wizard will all to be counted as a server. Permissions Percentile Specify the percent of the serving area that you wish to include based on the C/I distribution in this field. This is covered in more detail in Channel Planning Section 14. Bias enter the difference in dB between strongest server and serving interferer before hand-off in the bias field, used in generation of the neighbor list Grid Set the grid set field is where you enter a value orientation (typically referring to a hex grid set ) for the transmitter in relation to the cell. This field is not used in x-Wizard as it was part of an AFP option that is no longer in use. (0-99)
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Optimi Corp HCS Forward Link SS_SUFF the point (RSL) at which x-Wizard will look to the next transmitter in the HCS scale for forward link analysis is entered here. HCS Reverse Link SS_SUFF the point (RSL) at which x-Wizard will look to the next transmitter in the HCS scale for forward link analysis is entered here. CGSA Dist (0) through CGSA Dist (315) Enter the distances to the CGSA boundaries for the FCC 600 forms in this field. x-Wizard will auto-populate this field using the compute distance to CGSA utility found under the Tools menu. Override when this field is selected, x-Wizard overrides or disregards the FCC height and power limitations. Use to use the following ERP values rather than the calculated values; select the use option for the FCC ERP ERP (0) through ERP (315) Enter the ERP values to use instead of calculated values here. Use Select this option if you want to use the following contour distances rather than the calculated values. Dist (0) through Dist (315) Select this option if you want to use contour distances instead of calculated values.
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x-Wizard Mass Editing Tools
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7.1
About Mass Editing Tools
In an effort to make x-Wizard a more proficient engineering tool, we have included some utilities to aid everyday needs when editing and changing site data. A note of caution: these tools make large-scale changes to project data that if used incorrectly could cause adverse effects to data. It is best to work with copies of a project before performing massive changes to official x-Wizard data.
7.2
Query and Edit
This tool allows entities to be queried and edited in both ASCII and database projects. You can perform queries to create simple reports. Before running a query, determine the data that will be used and the entity resolution. The following section outlines a means to query within x-Wizard. To launch the Query Builder dialog, select Tools > Query.
The Entity Level drop-down box will be populated with the entity levels using either their AMPS\TDMA\CDMA or GSM designation based on the projects terminology selection. The Available Fields frame is populated with the data that can be queried for the given level. This list changes with each entity level. The Operator field contains the normal querying operators such as equivalent, less than, and greater than. To query for a given field, select an item from the set of available fields and either left-click add or double click the item. This item is then added to the selected item list. When selecting an item from the Selected Field list, the value field will be populated with a default value if the item is newly added or that field is assigned a query value. The default values are as follows: zero for integers, 0.0 for doubles, TRUE for Boolean, and blank for strings. If an invalid value is entered, no matches will be returned. The value field provides support for the wild card operator for string fields. Use of the wildcard operator is limited to support the format xxx*. In x-Wizard, *xx is not supported. All values after the wild card operator are ignored. To interchange between AND and OR when connecting sub-queries, select the appropriate command. These commands are disabled if there are less than two sub-queries. As sub-queries are built and connected into a 96
Optimi Corp query statement, the query is written the query edit box. This edit box is read only. The query precedence is from left to right as follows: (A AND B) OR (C AND D) = [(A AND B) OR C] AND D To save queries, simply enter a name in the title field and select Save. The title field is a combination box (combo box) of all stored queries. When a query from the combo box is selected, it is loaded in the dialog. Attempts to save a pre-existing query will be prompted for overwrite. Stored queries are saved in files that have the same name as the title with a .qry extension. As such, query titles cannot have invalid file name characters. Stored queries are located in the X:\Path\COMMON\Query folder. To remove a sub-query from the query statement, select the appropriate field from the Selected Field list and click Remove Item or double click on the item. Once the query has been set up you can also use the entity filters at the bottom of the dialog in the Include All area. These filters will help you find your target entities based on their active state. The filters are: Active Entities \ Inactive Entities Visible Entities \ Invisible Entities Query Results if the query results have no items that match the query, a notification will appear. If, however, there are results, the following dialog will appear:
If you have run your query on the cell level you can choose to edit the cells that were determined to meet your query results or you can use the drop down menu and choose the transmitter level for all the cells that were returned as part of your query. The query results contain the Name, Status and Creator fields as well as any other query fields. Clicking the Make Active Set will allow you to save the entities that were returned as a successful query as their own active set, to be recalled at anytime. Selecting the option to Show the Query on Map will highlight all sectors that contain the query that was just run. Click done to view the Map when finished. Additionally, if you saved the query you can highlight the query from the saved name in the View > Entity Relationship window or just the last run.
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7.2.1 Editing Query Results

To individually select entries, click the first column of the appropriate row. To select all entries; left click Select All. Left clicking Done removes the dialog box. To select a couple or all of the entries and perform a global edit, click Edit. The Make List option allows you to create of a list of the results in a text file format Multiple Edit Multiple Edit allows changes to selected data in a number of items at the same time.
The picture above illustrates the dialog that is used for the Multiple Edit features. The Data Fields drop-down list contains the list of possible data fields that can be modified for entities of the selected level. The Value field is either a dropdown (write-enabled) or a drop list (read only) combo box based on the data field selected. Advanced Editing Options Depending on what field in the cell or transmitter data you are editing, you may be able to perform some advanced functions. You can edit any field that can be changed by adding, subtracting, or multiplying.
By using the Advanced options you are allowed to change particular values by increasing (adding), decreasing (subtracting), or by a scale factor (multiplying). As an example, if you want to increase all of your calculation distances by 10% you could edit all the calculation distances by a scale factor of 1.1 or 110% effectively increasing the current value by 10% If the Antenna Type data field is selected, an option is enabled.
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Clicking this option spawns the Antenna Editor. The options Update Sector Width, Antenna Sector Width static text, and Edit also appear when the Antenna Type data field is selected. Otherwise, these fields are hidden. The Display Style feature launches the Line Style dialog box. Click OK or Apply to apply the value to the selected data field for all the entities specified in the list box. This will change the display style setting for all the selected entities The Multiple Edit dialog appears to inform you of the changes being made. However, since it doesn't recognize status, changes are applied to Official cells without prompting for the creation of What If cells. The multiple edit utility may also be accessed by selecting groups of cells from the WEX, and using the right click menu.
7.3
Import Export Project Data Tool
Import/Export Project Data feature allows for the import and export of data out of and into an existing x-Wizard project. The file format relies on keyed column names for each entity type. Most fields are optional. Required fields--columns--are those necessary to uniquely identify the entities. The importer can read in any format that was exported. The import/export file is a tab delimited text file to allow for easy manipulation by Windows applications such as Notepad and Excel. The obvious benefit of this tool is that it allows the importation/exportation of data. The second benefit is that you decide which fields to export. Third party macros that will work on a specific format will not require any changes with different versions of x-Wizard. Simply instruct the export tool to export the data in the proper format. Another benefit is the ability to update or reconstruct an entire project with this feature. This tool can be used to transfer projects from office to office or user to user.
7.3.1 Exporting
To Export, select File > Export > Project Data , a dialog box appears to prompt the selection of data for export.
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Export Name this name will be used to generate all the file names. Directory Type in the path of the directory where the files will be created, the directory can be selected using the browse feature. Format Name To save this export for later recall enter a name for the options selected and click the Save options. This will sav a layout map of the filters that you choose. The middle section of this dialog contains an expandable tree of selections. These selections allow customization of the export to include only the data specified. The Export Filters options determine if the exporter will export inactive and/or visible entities. (Active and visible entities are always active) The Select All option selects all of the selections in the tree. The export function generates the file names for each entity level is by using the export name and adding an appropriate extension to it, example: if the export name is MyExport the transmitter level file will be MyExport.tx and the cell level file will be MyExport.cel.
7.3.2 Importing
Use the File > Import > Project Data
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Optimi Corp Enter the path to the files or browse to them using the ellipsis button. The Type option allows the user to import Wizard Format data, Ericssons AMPS/TDMA Network proprietary dada MTCLP Data and Ericssons GSM Network proprietary data RLCP data. In addition, you can change the datum type if the coordinates that used for the import are different. Next, the importer will try to open and identify the files. The possible errors that could arise to cause the importer to abort is as follows: The files given to the importer are not valid x-Wizard import files. There is more than one file with the same entity level. There was an error in the data in ANY single entity read from the file(s). The importer did not find the parent for an entity it is trying to import. (This can be avoided by selecting the files and options that create the x-Wizard project hierarchy.) The importer was not able to lock all the entities being imported (note this does not apply for new entities). When completed, a report appears with the list of entities read from the file and an option to proceed or cancel. A .log file is created that lists all errors detected when the file is imported. If an error has occurred, x-Wizard provides the option to read that file and save it to any location via Wordpad. The Import Report is displayed and will prompt you with the option to save the report, to do so, click Save Report. The Error dialog If an error is encountered during the import process a warning box will appear reporting the error and providing you an opportunity to view the import log that lists errors. The Import / Export File Format The format for the export file format is Tab Delimited text. The first two lines of the file are the header and the legend. Both lines are important for identifying the entity level and for describing the data. The first line of the TX file is the header and the two fields; "file version" and "entity level, describe the version of the file and the entity level of ALL entities in this file. The second line is the legend of the file; this line describes what data is in the following entity. Without these two lines, the importer will reject the file. The legend is composed of headers or string descriptions. Headers in Bold must be in the file. FOR CELL SITES:
SITE_UNIQUE_NAME,
SITE_SHORT_NAME, SITE_PARENT, SITE_LAT_DECIMAL, SITE_LON_DECIMAL, SITE_ACTIVES_STATE, SITE_VISIBLE_STATE, SITE_NUMBER, SITE_NORTH_CALC_DIST, SITE_SOUTH_CALC_DIST, SITE_EAST_CALC_DIST, SITE_WEST_CALC_DIST, SITE_TYPE, SITE_BASE_ELEVATION, SITE_CHANNEL_SPACING, SITE_GRID_POSITION FOR TRANSMITERS:
TX_UNIQUE_NAME,
TX_TRANSMIT_RECEIVE, TX_ANTENNA_TYPE, TX_ERP, TX_SHORT_NAME, TX_ACTIVES_STATE, TX_VISIBLE_STATE, TX_AZIMUTH, TX_SECTOR_WIDTH, TX_NOMINAL_RADIUS, TX_RADIATION_CENTER, TX_SERVICE_GROUP, TX_TILT, TX_MINIMUM_SERVING_LEVEL, TX_PERCENTILE, TX_HAND_OFF_THREASHOLD, TX_SWITCH_ID, TX_NUMBER_OF_RADIOS, TX_FWD_SS_SUFF, TX_REV_SS_SUFF, TX_VOICE_ACTIVITY_FACTOR, TX_TECHNOLOGY, TX_POWER_BUGET, TX_BIAS, TX_REV_LINK_POWER_BUDGET, TX_DATA_TRAFFIC, TX_VOICE_TRAFFIC, TX_USE_NONCOLLOCATED_ANTENNAS
7.4
Using the Import / Export Project Data Fields for Creating Custom Site Reports
To access the Site Report exporter use File > Export > Generate Site Report 101
Optimi Corp The export dialog will give you a list the sites to choose from. You select one or as many sites as you would like and x-Wizard will export the data into a pre-formatted Excel spreadsheet.
The Select All button will select all sites to be included in the report. The Show Inactive Sites and Show Invisible Sites options will let you expand the list to include the active and inactive sites in your project. The Template file drop down list will let you select for all of you templates that you create. The Output folder is where the final report will be created. The real power is that you can create your own formats. It is as easy as creating a worksheet in Excel. Format the worksheet as you like with labels, colors or whatever so it fits your need. Then you tell x-Wizard where to put the data in the form cells by typing a variable name enclosed in { } brackets. The variable names are the same as the header names from the Project Data Export above. You can get the headers by using File > Export > Project Data. Then choose the fields that you want So if you wanted to have a report that listed the antenna model and azimuth for each sector at the site, you would enter the following variables into the cell where you wanted that data to appear: {TX_ANTENNA_TYPE 0} - Pulls the antenna model name for the first sector listed at the cell {TX_AZIMUTH 0} - Pulls the antenna azimuth for the first sector listed at the cell To get the antenna model name and azimuth for other transmitters at the cell, you simply increment the number at the end of the variable name. Note The exporter pulls data in the order that the transmitters are listed in the cell data dialog. It does not necessarily look at the Sector number and Tier number (though these are used to order the transmitters in the spreadsheet). So, using a 0 at the end of the header name will pull the data from the 1st Transmitter row, while using a 3 will pull data from the 4th Transmitter row. The report template can contain data from the cell (Lat, Lon, Name, Number, ID, Notes, etc.). The template can contain transmitter data like Rad. Center, downtilt, ERP or other field. The template can contain information from the power budget such as cable type, its length or list of components. The developers have 102
Optimi Corp even added variables from the FCC forms so that the address and FCC market information can be included in a template.
7.4.1
Added Keys
In general, all the fields that can be used to export cell or transmitter data may be used when creating the template file. There are, however, a few extra fields that may be used in the template file that may not be exported or imported. SITE_NUMBER_OF_TRANSMITTERS = Count of the number of transmitters in the cell. SITE_STD_LAT_DECIMAL = A decimal representation of the latitude of the cell site, similar to SITE_LAT_DECIMAL, except that positive values represent points north of the equator, and negative ones are south of the equator. This notation is considered standard to what other mapping software uses. SITE_FCC_MARKET_DATA = This is the selected market for the cell site. To see/change this, edit a cell, then select the FCC button, and look at the drop list labeled FCC Market Data: All of the following fields can be shown or changed by editing a cell, and pressing the Tower button. SITE_FCC_CA_STREET1 = Zip Code SITE_FCC_CA_STREET2 = Street SITE_FCC_CA_CITY = City SITE_FCC_CA_COUNTY = County SITE_FCC_CA_STATE = State
7.5
OLAP Functionality
OLAP functionality for Wizard data allows engineers to view and audit data in a user-friendly and configurable way. From configurable views, engineers can select a slice of data to multi-edit. Together the viewing and editing capabilities provide powerful new functionality previously unavailable (pre 7.0) in x-Wizard. OLAP stands for Online Analytical Processing. It is an approach to quickly provide answers to analytical queries that are dimensional in nature. An example of viewing data is a sorted list of antenna heights above ground level. Such a view allows for checks of outlier values. Very quickly engineers can spot bad values or missing values. For editing, the OLAP viewalso referred to as a pivot tableallows selections of entities (for example, sites or transmitters) that can be modified in Wizards Multiple Edit dialog. Using this functionality an engineer can first identify all sectors with < 10 ERP and then mass edit the Nominal Radius field to set a common value. The options are endless.
7.5.1
Terminology
A dimension is a header which describes a characteristic of the current dataset. The dimensions can be dragged and placed on either the horizontal or vertical axis to generate the desired output. Active dimensions have blue headers, and are available for data reporting (inactive dimensions have dark gray headers).
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7.5.2
Common Elements in Pivot Tables
There are certain facts and dimensions common to all pivot tables. All pivot tables will have facts called No. (Dimension) and No.Sector. These are placeholder references which allow a pivot table to be built even when the dimensions and/or facts selected by the user yield no information. In most tables, these fields are unchecked by default and need not be turned on. The pivot table is a very powerful solution for managing information within a project. Within the OLAP, there are two ways to manipulate the pivot tables: by using row/column manipulation and by using the pivot table icons.
7.5.3
Common Elements in Pivot Tables
The dimensions in a pivot table can be arranged in any order to build the information architecture. To move a dimension, select the desired dimension and drag it to the left or on top of the fact grouping. By dragging and dropping the dimensions of the table, the user can produce meaningful information.
7.5.4 Default Views

xWizard comes with a few pre-defined views for the pivot table as seen here:
Physical Site Data View Common for all Site-level views: Site Name, Site ID, Site Num, Site Active, Site Visible, Status, Type, Creator. Specific for Physical>Site view: Elevation, Use XYZ, Latitude, Longitude, Chan Space, Site Parent, Customized Fields. Physical TX Data View Common for most of the TX-level views: Switch ID (Sec ID in Switch), TX Name, Site ID(Cell-ID in BSC), Site Name, Site Active, TX Active, Site Visible, TX Visible, Site Status, Creator. Specific for Physical>TX view: Antenna Type, HCS Tier, Use NCA, NCA, Rad Center, Azimuth, Tilt, TX Width, ERP, Feed Lines, Nominal Radius, Voice Traffic, Data Traffic. 104
Optimi Corp Site Prediction Data Common for all Site-level views: Site Name, Site ID, Site Num, Site Active, Site Visible, Status, Type, Creator. Specific for Predictions Settings>Site view: Calculation distances/radius, Terrain, Building Database TX Prediction Data Common for most of the TX-level views: Switch ID (Sec ID in Switch), TX Name, Site ID(Cell-ID in BSC), Site Name, Site Active, TX Active, Site Visible, TX Visible, Site Status, Creator. Specific for Predictions Settings>TX view: Prop.Model Type, Prop.Model Name, Clutter Type, Clutter Adjustment, Min. Serving signal, Permissions Percentile, Bias, HCS Fwd Link SS_Suff, HCS Rev Link SS_Suff Power Budget View Common for most of the TX-level views: Switch ID (Sec ID in Switch), TX Name, Site ID(Cell-ID in BSC), Site Name, Site Active, TX Active, Site Visible, TX Visible, Site Status, Creator. Specific for Power Budget view: Power Budget direction (TX/RX), Power Budget Name (when saved), All possible power budget items Measured Data View Common for most of the TX-level views: Switch ID (Sec ID in Switch), TX Name, Site ID(Cell-ID in BSC), Site Name, Site Active, TX Active, Site Visible, TX Visible, Site Status, Creator. Specific for Measured Data view: Name of the associated MD file(s), Maximum distance of assoc.MD, Minimum signal level of assoc.MD, Channel number of assoc.MD, Minimum distance from the Site, Radio Views: GSM radio View: Common for most of the TX-level views UMTS radio View: Common for most of the TX-level views CDMA 2000 radio View: Common for most of the TX-level views 1xEVDO radio View: Common for most of the TX-level views WiMAX radio View: Common for most of the TX-level views Permission View: Common for most of the TX-level views: Switch ID (Sec ID in Switch), TX Name, Site ID(Cell-ID in BSC), Site Name, Site Active, TX Active, Site Visible, TX Visible, Site Status, Creator.
7.5.5
Using the Pivot Tables to edit and multi-edit entities
The data inside the pivot tables can be used in conjunction with the multiple edit window to edit data on a Site or TX level for one or multiple entities. To use this feature simply double click on a fact (parameter) anywhere in the pivot table data. You will be presented with a series of options for editing and selecting, as seen here.
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Optimi Corp Select Corresponding TX (Site) - This option will add the entity you have double clicked on to the multiple edit windows. Select Listed TX's (Sites) with - this option will let you add entities of different or like values of the one you double clicked on to the multiple edit window. The > expansion will give you a series of selection options. Add to Selection - if you already have some entities selected for editing, this option will let you add to that list. Remove from Selection - if you already have some sites in you selection list you will can use this option to remove sites from the edit list. Edit Selected TX (Site) - this option will launch the multiple edit window allowing you to edit the sites or TX's you have chosen using any or all of the above features.
7.5.6 Export Menu

The Export View menu will allow for the export of the OLAP data to one of four formats: 1. 2. 3. 4. Export Data to Files of Comma Separated Values (*.CSV). Export data to *.CSV format. Export Data to Text File (.txt) Export Grid to Microsoft Excel. Export data to Microsoft Excel format. Export Grid to HTML. Export data to HTML format.
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Common Analysis Data and Basic Coverage
1.1DEFINE A X-WIZARD PROJECT.................................................................................................................. 5 1.2OPENING AN EXISTING PROJECT............................................................................................................. 5 1.3THE USER ID FIELD..................................................................................................................................... 5 1.4UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENT DATABASE PROJECTS........................................................................6 1.5POINTING PROJECTS TO THE CORRECT PATH......................................................................................7 1.6SAVING PROJECTS AND THE SAVE PROJECT AS OPTION................................................................8 1.7COPYING PROJECTS................................................................................................................................... 9 1.8CLOSING PROJECTS................................................................................................................................... 9 1.9CREATE A NEW PROJECT.......................................................................................................................... 9 1.10UPDATING MASTER PROJECTS............................................................................................................ 10 1.11WHAT IS A X-WIZARD PROJECT?.......................................................................................................... 13 1.12THE EDIT PROJECT DIALOG.................................................................................................................. 13 1.13BASIC PROJECT DATA............................................................................................................................ 14 1.14RF PARAMETERS..................................................................................................................................... 15 1.15TECHNOLOGY SPECIFIC DATA.............................................................................................................. 16 1.16FREQUENCY TABLE................................................................................................................................ 17 1.17PERMISSIONS........................................................................................................................................... 17 1.18PROJECT SUMMARY .............................................................................................................................. 18 2.1WINDOW LAYOUTS.................................................................................................................................... 20 2.2THE VIEW WINDOW .................................................................................................................................. 22 2.3THE LEGEND WINDOW .......................................................................................................................... 22 2.4STATUS BAR.............................................................................................................................................. 22 2.5THE TOOL BARS........................................................................................................................................ 23 2.6CUSTOMIZATION OF THE TOOLBAR....................................................................................................... 26 2.7MENU BAR (FILE, EDIT, VIEW).............................................................................................................. 27 2.8X-WIZARD SHORTCUT KEYS ................................................................................................................... 27 3.1THE BIN GRID............................................................................................................................................. 33 3.2TERRAIN FILES.......................................................................................................................................... 33 3.3LOADING TERRAIN.................................................................................................................................... 33 3.4SELECTING TERRAIN................................................................................................................................ 34 3.5VIEWING AND DISPLAYING TERRAIN...................................................................................................... 35 3.6TERRAIN IN THE MAP VIEW ..................................................................................................................... 37 4.1THE ENTITY HIERARCHY.......................................................................................................................... 43 4.2PROJECT MANAGEMENT USING THE ENTITY HIERARCHY STRUCTURE..........................................43 4.3STATUS TYPES.......................................................................................................................................... 44 4.4WORKING AND MANAGING STATUS TYPES..........................................................................................45 4.5USING COLORS TO DISPLAY ACTIVITY/VISIBILITY STATUS OF ENTITIES.........................................46 107
Optimi Corp 4.6THE EDIT ACTIVE MENU ITEM.................................................................................................................. 48 4.7DISPLAYING CELL SITES USING STATUSES ACTIVE BY STATUS...................................................49 4.8DELETING CELL SITES USING STATUSES DELETE BY STATUS......................................................50 4.9USING ACTIVE SETS.................................................................................................................................. 51 4.10USING GROUPS........................................................................................................................................ 51 5.1INTRODUCTION TO THE WIRELESS EXPLORER....................................................................................59 5.2CONTROLLING THE WIRELESS EXPLORER DISPLAY..........................................................................61 5.3CONTEXT MENUS...................................................................................................................................... 63 5.4THE FIND UTILITY...................................................................................................................................... 65 6.1EDITING THE ENTITIES WITHIN A PROJECT........................................................................................... 71 6.2CREATING, EDITING, COPYING, DELETING ENTITIES...........................................................................72 6.3THE EDIT CELL AND SELECTIVE CELL EDIT DIALOG...........................................................................73 6.4EDITING CELLS.......................................................................................................................................... 75 6.5THE TX/RX SPREADSHEET....................................................................................................................... 78 7.1ABOUT MASS EDITING TOOLS................................................................................................................. 96 7.2QUERY AND EDIT....................................................................................................................................... 96 7.3IMPORT EXPORT PROJECT DATA TOOL................................................................................................99 7.4USING THE IMPORT / EXPORT PROJECT DATA FIELDS FOR CREATING CUSTOM SITE REPORTS ........................................................................................................................................................................ 101 7.5OLAP FUNCTIONALITY ........................................................................................................................... 103 8.1COMMON ANALYSIS DATA..................................................................................................................... 111 8.2COVERAGE ANALYSIS............................................................................................................................ 116 8.3ENTITY DISPLAY RESOLUTION.............................................................................................................. 117 8.4DISPLAY BAND COLORS........................................................................................................................ 118 8.5ANALYSIS SPECIFIC BAND COLORS PROJECT LEVEL DISPLAYS. .................................................118 8.6QUICK COVERAGE USING THE SHOW COVERAGE MOUSE MODE BUTTON...................................120 8.7THE LEGEND............................................................................................................................................ 120 9.1WHAT IS CONTROLLABLE IN THE X-WIZARD DISPLAY? ...................................................................124 9.2MAP OPTIONS ........................................................................................................................................ 124 9.3MAP ANNOTATIONS................................................................................................................................ 142 9.4ASSIGNING VALUES TO OBJECTS........................................................................................................ 146 9.5AREA STATISTICS ................................................................................................................................... 149 9.6ZOOM......................................................................................................................................................... 150 9.7 COLOR SCHEMES................................................................................................................................... 151 9.8CHANGING FONT..................................................................................................................................... 153 10.1OVERLAPPING COVERAGE ................................................................................................................. 158 10.2REVERSE LINK....................................................................................................................................... 158 10.3NUMBER OF SERVERS.......................................................................................................................... 159 10.4PATH LOSS............................................................................................................................................. 159 Essentials of x-Wizard 108
Optimi Corp 10.5MOST LIKELY SERVER.......................................................................................................................... 159 10.6JOINT PROBABILITY.............................................................................................................................. 159 10.7LINE OF SIGHT....................................................................................................................................... 160 10.8PREVIOUSLY RUN ANALYSIS............................................................................................................... 161 11.1 MEASURED DATA FUNCTIONALITY................................................................................................... 164 11.2IMPORTING MEASURED DATA............................................................................................................. 164 11.3 VIEWING MEASURED DATA................................................................................................................. 166 11.4 FILTER OR EDIT MEASURED DATA.................................................................................................... 170 11.5 MEASURED DATA ASSOCIATION....................................................................................................... 171 11.6MEASURED DATA SHIFT ...................................................................................................................... 174 11.7COMPARING MEASUREMENTS TO PREDICTIONS.............................................................................174 11.8BATCHED PROPAGATION MODEL OPTIMIZATION............................................................................177 11.9MEASURED VS PREDICTED ANALYSIS............................................................................................... 180 11.10MODEL AVERAGING ........................................................................................................................... 181 11.11EVALUATING THE RESULTS.............................................................................................................. 183 11.12MERGING OF MEASURED DATA INTO PREDICTIONS ....................................................................183 11.13 REMOVE MEASURED DATA ASSOCIATION.....................................................................................185 ....................................................................................................................................................................... 185 12.1WHAT ARE CLUTTER ADJUSTMENTS?............................................................................................... 190 12.2LOADING THE CLUTTER FILE.............................................................................................................. 190 12.3CREATING OR EDITING A CLUTTER ADJUSTMENT FILE..................................................................190 12.4SELECTING CLUTTER AND CLUTTER ADJUSTMENT FILES............................................................192 12.5OPTIMIZING CLUTTER VALUES WITH DRIVE TEST DATA................................................................192 12.6EDITING THE CLUTTER FILE................................................................................................................ 195 12.7DISPLAYING THE CLUTTER FILE......................................................................................................... 195 13.1CHANNEL PLANNING IN X-WIZARD .................................................................................................... 198 13.2CHANNEL PLANNING TERMINOLOGY.................................................................................................198 13.3ASSIGNING FREQUENCY TABLES....................................................................................................... 198 13.4EDITING FREQUENCY TABLES............................................................................................................ 200 13.5CHANNEL PLAN TEMPLATES............................................................................................................... 202 13.6ASSIGNING A CHANNEL TEMPLATE................................................................................................... 203 13.7SELECTING A CHANNEL PLAN............................................................................................................ 203 13.8HOW TO ASSIGN CHANNELS............................................................................................................... 204 13.9SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR IDEN PROJECTS IDEN CHANNEL TEMPLATES..............208 13.10SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR GSM TECHNOLOGY...................................................................209 13.11PN AND SCRAMBLE CODE PLANS FOR CDMA TECHNOLOGIES..................................................210 13.12DISPLAYING CHANNELS AND CHANNEL OPTIONS.........................................................................211 13.13DISPLAYING CHANNELS BY CHANNEL OR TRANSMITTER...........................................................213 109
Optimi Corp 13.14CHANNEL PLAN UTILITIES ................................................................................................................ 215 13.15IMPORTING CHANNELS...................................................................................................................... 216 13.16INTERACTIVE CHANNEL PLANNING.................................................................................................. 219 14.1INTERFERENCE ANALYSIS................................................................................................................... 232 14.2SERVER BY BEST C/I ........................................................................................................................ 232 14.3INTERFERENCE ANALYSIS................................................................................................................... 232 14.4CHANNEL OPTIONS RESTRICTION OF INTERFERENCE...................................................................238 15.1INTRODUCTION TO SMART ANALYSIS...............................................................................................244 15.2DEFINING YOUR ANALYSIS REQUIREMENTS....................................................................................244 15.3THE INTERFACE..................................................................................................................................... 244 15.4INTERPRETING THE EVALUATION RESULTS ....................................................................................248 16.1NEIGHBOR LISTS................................................................................................................................... 251 16.2AUTOMATIC NEIGHBOR LIST GENERATION .....................................................................................251 16.3GEOGRAPHIC DISPLAY OF NEIGHBOR RELATIONS.........................................................................253 16.4NEIGHBOR LIST REPORTS................................................................................................................... 255 16.5IMPORTING NEIGHBOR LISTS ............................................................................................................. 256 17.1APPENDIX I SERVER CALCULATION METHODS AND PROPAGATION DETAILS...........................265 17.2APPENDIX II HIERARCHAL CELL STRUCTURING (HCS) DETAILS ..................................................265 17.3APPENDIX III TURBO (RADIAL) VS. STANDARD PROPAGATION CALCULATION METHODS........271 17.4APPENDIX IV TOWERS AND LOCATION BASED DATA.....................................................................272 17.5APPENDIX V FCC FUNCTIONALITY...................................................................................................... 277 17.6APPENDIX VI PRINTING AND PLOTTING............................................................................................. 281 17.7APPENDIX VII ADDING AND USING REPEATERS...............................................................................287 17.8APPENDIX VIII BEHIND THE SCENES AND PROJECT OPTIMIZATIONS...........................................291 17.9APPENDIX IX UNDERSTANDING USER PERMISSIONS AND CHANGE PETITIONS.........................304 17.10APPENDIX X UNDERSTANDING HOW THE ANALYSIS MANAGER FUNCTIONALITY WORKS.....312 17.11APPENDIX XI COVERAGE QUALITY IMPACT ANALYSIS USABILITY.............................................313 17.12APPENDIX XII PROFILE UTILITY FUNCTION.....................................................................................319
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8.1
Common Analysis Data
While each analysis has its own unique characteristics, certain characteristics apply to all of the coverage analyses. These common characteristics are described here and are not repeated for each coverage analysis type covered. In the Cell Data dialog, the following data is common to all analyses. Calculation Distances the upper right hand corner of the Cell Data dialog specifies the Calculation Distance. This distance represents the number of miles (or kilometers, if the project measurement units are set to metric) to calculate from the cell site in each direction: north, west, south, and east.
These distances represent an important basic factor to the calculation of signals: no coverage or interference will be shown from the transmitters of the source cell beyond the calculation distance because no calculations will take place beyond those distances. If the distance is not far enough, particularly in the case of interference, no affecting signal will be present where it might otherwise be predicted to be present. On the other hand, if the calculation distance value is too high, unnecessary calculations will take place resulting in increased processing time and file sizes. Transmit vs. Receive for each antenna selected, you may specify whether it serves a transmit function; receive function, or both by selecting the appropriate T or S column in the transmitter section. All x-Wizard forward link coverage analyses are currently based on transmitters only. If the T column is not selected for a transmitter, it will NOT be included in any forward link coverage analyses. The receive-only situation described above is used in preparation for analyses that are based on uplink calculations. Setup vs. Voice in the second and third columns of the transmitter area, you may specify that a transmitter is a setup transmitter, a voice transmitter, or both by selecting the S column, the V column, or both columns. This distinction is typically used when the antenna or ERP for the setup channel is different from that of the voice channel. For example, the equipment configuration of some cellular infrastructure providers allows the setup channel to be placed on an omni-directional antenna while the voice channels are sectored. In that case, you would select different setup and voice channels. Order of Information when running an analysis in x-Wizard, the program must determine where to retrieve its information to calculate the analysis. Calculations can be done on Terrain, Clutter, Propagation Models, all that can be assigned at different places and hierarchy levels. The specific order that x-Wizard uses to search for data as follows: 1. x-Wizard uses information entered directly in the analysis, such as any of the analysis variables in the analysis dialog boxes. 2. If data is not entered in the analysis box or the TX values are used, x-Wizard will look to the transmitter-specific parameters field in the Cell Data dialog. If the Use option is selected at the TR/RX level, x-Wizard will apply these parameters to the analysis. 3. If transmitter-specific parameters are not in use, x-Wizard will look to the cell level. The Use check box must be selected for x-Wizard to use the cell-specific parameters that are specified. 4. Finally, if none of the previous areas has specific data, x-Wizard will apply project or global level parameters to determine the prediction of the analysis. (Found in the Edit > Project screen) 111
Optimi Corp Analysis Data in each analysis dialog, data common to all analyses appears on the dialogs for each analysis. This common data is described below. Reference Grid The Reference Grid is used to determine the output or display resolution of the analyses. The Reference Grids only function is to provide a map view resolution; this grid does not need to contain the same geographical area as the calculations. Only the resolution is used from the reference grid, not the data contained within this grid. The basic calculation resolution takes place at the resolution of the terrain selected for the project or site. The Reference Grid provides ONLY the output grid resolution. Reference Grid Validation - Allows an engineer to compare an analysis reference grid against the resolution of all participating transmitters. To validate, press the Compare button to the right of the Reference Grid selection.
Transmitters to Include the selections available for Transmitters to Include are: Any technology that exists in the project, then All, Setup Only, and Voice Only (S and V). If the x-Wizard project has different configurations for setup and voice channel transmitters at any sites, it is strongly recommended that you select the desired channel type for all coverage and interference analyses.
Legend The Title and Subtitle frames allow information input, check boxes allow the specification of the type of data to include, and the text box allows the footer line to be specified. The specifics of the legend are covered later in this section. Options the Analysis On Screen option forces the background process windows that are spawned by the prerequisite checker to the foreground. It also requires user input necessary to complete the analysis. If this is selected you must use the Alt+F4 combination to finish the analysis when prompted.
8.1.1 Display Bands and Fade Margin

Every analysis utilizes display bands. The Display Bands frame contains eight entries that allow the user to enter display bands appropriate for that analysis. The units that are used for each of the various analyses are included in the Display Bands frame. In some analyses such as interference, the units used for the display bands change depending on other selections made in the Analysis dialog. In every case, the entries in each of the nine values, Upper through Band 8 Lower, must contain values in descending order. The Auto Increment option automatically fills bands in equal increments between the user-specified values in the Upper and the Band x Lower boxes last used. 112
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x-Wizard analysis predicts at median (50 percentile) reliability. However, this level of reliability is not sufficient for RF coverage designs. Fade Margins allows engineers to apply extra margins in predicted signals to assure that there will be good coverage. Currently this margin is calculated outside of x-Wizard (typically in Excel link budget spreadsheets), and then applied in the display bands in the analysis dialogs. Applying fade margins typically shrinks the coverage; however it gives higher reliability of coverage. Further, x-Wizard also predicts at the outdoor (street) level. In-building penetration and other losses are not accounted for. These losses need to be factored in the analysis display bands as well. To get the fade margin utility, select Edit > Display Bands and Fade Margin Utility . The following dialog is displayed.
In the Display Band Profile combo box, select existing profiles and edit new profiles. The new button clears the Morphology Profile and spreadsheet. In the spreadsheet is a list of morphologies and display band values. Pressing the Edit button displays the following dialog:
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The Calculator Section Has three sections Losses and SD - This section is where you put in the environmental losses and standard deviations associated with the type of morphology that you are modeling. The propagation model standard deviation is always present, but must be entered by you. You can enter as many other losses as you deem necessary to properly model the environment. Inputs - Fade margin calculations differ depending on what type of inputs you are using. For the Link Threshold you generally want to use the receiver sensitivity unless you are using a power limited technology such as CDMA, and then you may need to select Maximum Available Power. For statistical Required Reliability input you need to tell the calculator if your design is based on area reliability or boundary reliability, and then what your reliability percentage should be. Note the higher your reliability requirement the higher your calculated display band will become. The final input the Propagation Loss Exponent (Slope Factor) is the amount of general decay for the given morphology. The range for the exponential slope factor is between 2 and 10, 2 being almost no decay or a very open RF environment, 10 being the most drastic super-dense urban environment. Outputs - after putting in all of your data you can select calculate and x-Wizard will return two values. The Fade Margin number is the calculated fade margin in dB. The Display Band number is the calculated display band that incorporates all of your inputs to make the x-Wizard display more accurately represent your reliability requirements. The coverage analysis display band screen has a drop down that can be used to select the created coverage profile. 114
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8.1.2 Naming Analyses

After x-Wizard analysis has been completed, you will be given the opportunity to add analysis notes (optional) and to name the analysis (optional). A screen similar to the following is presented:
It is not necessary to provide add notes or provide a name; however, a named analysis can be recalled for viewing in a view window. To save space, do not name an analysis if it does not need to be retrieved. To view a previously named analysis, select File > Open View > Named Analysis.
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Select the desired Project, the User ID, and the Named Analysis, and then click OK. A window containing the analysis will be created. Within this window, viewed parameters such as bands, overlays, and display styles may be changed and screen grid data may be exported, but analyses cannot be run. The ability to queue analysisline up multiple analyses for a batch runis little known because there is no user interface. Analyses are queued up by holding down the CTRL key when pressing the OK button of any Wizard analysis. To run all previously queued analyses simply select OK to an analysis dialog without the CTRL key down. Each queued analysis will run in sequence. This functionality is handy for running a bunch of different analyses without the need to interact with Wizard between each analysis. With Wizard 7.1.1, each analysis can also be named at queue time. To see this in action, hold down the CTRL key for any analysis OK button. Youll get the following dialog.
Naming a queued analysis Entries for the Analysis Notes section will preface the time/date stamp of the analysis name in the Analysis Manager. Entering a Named Analysis name saves a static copy of the analysis for later viewing via the File > Open View > Named Analysis dialog.
8.2
Coverage Analysis
The type of coverage analysis x-Wizard runs depends on the selected technology. During the analysis, xWizard predicts the signal strength values and server identities for up to the ten strongest signals for each bin.
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In the Multiple Servers frame, you can choose to calculate up to the strongest ten signals for each bin. This is specified in the Servers to Compute box. Note not all technologies have multiple server available in the basic coverage analysis, as in the case of GSM Coverage and GSM Strongest Servers The Display Server box controls which Nth strongest server is displayed in the map view. For the second strongest server, select two, for the third strongest server, select three and so on. This value must be less than or equal to the Servers to Compute value. The band limits represent predicted signal values in dBm. The point data feature and the star tool may also be used to view the servers of a particular bin.
8.3
Entity Display Resolution
x-Wizard entities represent a hierarchical system. The entity display resolution you select instructs x-Wizard how to display analyses. Entity levels are defined in Section 5 THE ENTITY HIERARCHY, and are shown in the following dialog box.
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Optimi Corp To change entity display resolution, select Entity Resolution after performing a right mouse click on the Map Options Tab > Grids > Analysis section or press the F8 key, then select the appropriate entity level. This will change the resolution of the display of analysis results on the screen. For example, if you are looking at a coverage plot and the current display resolution is "transmitter", the coverage from each transmitter will show on screen as a different line style, color, or character. This means that each sector of a sectored cell will show up with a different line style or character. If you change the entity display resolution to "cell", all of the transmitters from a sectored cell will be displayed with a uniform line style or character and each cell will have different line styles or characters.
8.4
Display Band Colors
Changing Analysis Result Display ColorsBy default, x-Wizard cycles through the colors used for display of analysis results. Selecting Format > Band Colors can modify the colors that result in the following dialog box.
By changing the colors for each band, you can select a new default color assignment scheme that will be used for all analyses in all of your projects, until changed. Click Auto Increment to instruct x-Wizard to automatically interpolate the colors between the colors chosen for Bands 1 through 12, or any set of colors you wish.
Analysis-specific Band Colors project-level displays
8.5
Analysis Specific Band Colors Project Level Displays.
Assigning separate band colors for different analyses offers convenience and improved engineering efficiency. There is no need to fiddle with bands and colors for every analysis. A company may set an engineering standard of red, yellow, and blue band colors for strongest server plots. While they may set another standard for interference plots using red, green, and purple bands. This provides each analysis with a different band color set for project-level displays! The analysis Display Parameters > Bands dialog has a color picker for the analysis-specific band customization.
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It is important to note that entity display resolutions other than project pull colors from the Format > Band Colors dialog. In the Display Band Profile dialog (seen by pressing the button in the dialog above), engineers create and save display band profiles with color bands specified. Selecting the profile in the Display Band Profile field (also displayed in the Figure 3), determines the band colors that will be displayed. Then, pressing the OK button will cause the displayed analysis to update and match the selected colors as long as the entity display resolution is set to the project level.
Band colors are per project, per analysis, and per user. There are 2 different cases when displaying analysis color. 119
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1. If displaying an entity-level independent analysis (like traffic interference, number of TX, number of pilot) or the entity level is at Project Level, the selected band color values are used for the display. 2. If an entity-level dependent analysis is displayed at an entity display resolution other than Project, the color scheme uses the Format > Band Colors settings with the standard color rotating method for each entity/band combination. In this case, the colors will be different from the selected bands in the Display Parameters dialog.
8.6
Quick Coverage using the Show Coverage mouse mode button
You can use the Show Coverage mouse mode button Select the button and then point to the sector that you want to display the quick coverage. x-Wizard will then calculate the coverage area and display it on the map view for that one sector.
If multiple transmitters exist at the same location a list will be presented to you and you can choose which one you would like to see, as follows
From this list you can pick out the transmitter that you want to run the coverage analysis on. *Note You can hold down the Ctrl key to select multiple transmitters in the map view so you can run multiple quick cover plots at the same time
8.7
The Legend
Displaying the Legend to display the Legend go to the Map Options tab and check the Show Legend option under the Legend Tree, or press the F10 key. The legend is a window that you can move, resize, minimize or maximize and scroll. You can control headers, footers, and content of the legend. Changing the Legendto access the legend information, double-click on the legend. The following dialog box is then presented:
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The show Logo checkbox allows you to show a company logo with your legend both on the map view and when printing. The options button will let you import a logo bitmap and adjust its scale. The Title and Subtitle sections of the legend may each contain up to 600 characters. Line wrapping is NOT implemented -- take care to not extend text beyond the size of the printed legend window. Other legend information can be enabled or disabled in the legend by selecting the boxes in the Show frame. Each feature is described below. Active Cells Shows the words Active Cells followed by the cell number and name of any active cells. If selected, allows the following selections: Switch Name Shows the switch name and displays the cell number and the name of all active cells under their respective switch. Cell Data Shows the coordinates, ground elevation of each active cell under the cell number, and name. TX Data Shows the sector number, tier number, antenna name, orientation, mechanical tilt, centerline above ground, and ERP of each active transmitter Inactive Cells Shows the words Inactive Cells followed by the cell number and the name of any inactive cells. If selected, this feature allows the following selections: Channel Colors This is available only if a channel plan is loaded. It shows the relationship between the color of channels and the code associated with that color in the legend. 121
Optimi Corp Invisible Cells If selected, the words Invisible Cells and cell names of cells (invisible) are listed just before the footer. Signal Level First If selected, the band information is listed before the entity names. If not, the band information is listed after the entity names. Display Styles If an analysis is shown on screen, selecting this feature includes the band information and display style for the current entity display resolution and analysis results in the legend. Entity Colors Shows the meaning of the coloration of the transmitter symbols. They may be colored by active status, by channel relationship, or to show channel usage. Terrain If terrain is shown on screen and this feature is selected, the bands and colors associated with the terrain display are included in the legend. Clutter If clutter data is shown on screen and this feature is selected the bands and colors associated with the clutter are included in the legend. Measured Data If a drive is displayed on screen and this feature is selected, the bands and colors associated with the measured data display are included in the legend.
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x-Wizard Display Options and Visual Controls
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9.1
What is Controllable in the x-Wizard Display?
x-Wizard is a very dynamic program, especially its display capabilities. It is important for you to be able to display x-Wizard results the way you want. The complexity of this can be compounded by the multi-user database functionality. There are many color and display defaults in x-Wizard but it is imperative to understand that these changes are mostly user specific. We want x-Wizard to be easy for everyone to use and still allow some uniformity in the display. This section explains the many different ways to view the data that x-Wizard produces and uses. Understanding these options enables you to display specific data in any x-Wizard project.
9.2
Map Options
Prior to the Wizard release v7.0 the Wireless Explorer occupied the sidebar in Wizard. Starting with version Wizard v7.0 two new options has been added to the sidebar of Wizard. The additions are Map Options and Menu Favorites. Wizard allows you to switch between the Wireless Explorer, Map Options, and Menu Favorites by clicking on the appropriate tab. The corresponding hotkeys are Ctrl+W (Wireless Explorer), Ctrl+O (Map Options), Ctrl+A (Analysis Manager), and Ctrl+U (Menu Favorites).
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The Map Options Tab provides the user access for most of the map view options. The Map Options Tab includes Site Display, Grids, Picture Files, Mapping, Geographic Images, Location Data, and Legend information. With these changes the Control Display Options dialog is no longer available.
9.2.1 Site Display

Inactive Allow controlling the display of Active/Inactive state of entities. Checking the Inactive option will show all inactive entities on the map, having it uncheck will cause inactive entities to be hidden from the Map. Invisible Allow controlling the display of visible/invisible state of entities. Checking the Invisible option will show all Invisible entities on the map, having it uncheck will cause Invisible entities to be hidden from the Map. Channels Allow controlling the display of the channel plan on the map. Checking the Channels option will show all channels assigned per sector on the map based on the Channel Display options properties, having it uncheck will cause Channels to be hidden from the Map. The Channel Display options display can be accessed by performing a right mouse click on the Channels options and selecting Properties, the following dialog will be displayed.
The Channel Display Options changes the display of the channels on the map view and controls the way x-Wizard runs its interference analysis. The display is broken down into three sections: Technology Selection, Values, Properties. See Section 14 Channel Planning for more details. The Site Data Options also has other sub options that can be accesses by performing right mouse click on Site Data. These are Properties, Colors Scheme, Font Color by External Data, Entity Relationship, Active by status, Active by Group, Load Active Set, and Save Active set.
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Selecting the Properties sub option will display the site display properties dialog.
Entity Style this frame controls how the Transmitter symbols are drawn on screen Do Not Show Symbol if this is selected; no transmitter symbols are shown on screen. Segment or Line allows you to show your transmitters as a sector (segment) or a line in the map view. Segment if this is selected, the Azimuth, Sector Width and Nominal Radius fields in the transmitter section of the Cell Data dialog are used to draw the transmitter symbols. The nominal radius in the TX/RX spreadsheet is multiplied by the scaling factor you see here for the map view display. This is a quick way to scale all transmitters to better fit the current zoom resolution. 126
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Line if line is selected the transmitters will be displayed as lines on the map view where the length of the line is determined by the nominal radius multiplied by the scaling factor. The azimuth of the line will be whatever the azimuth happens to be in the TX/RX spreadsheet. Use Fixed Size this selection sets all symbols at one fixed size. Polygons created with this option can have two to twelve sides. Line Thickness this selection determines the thickness in pixels of the transmitter symbols. Outline Cell this selection causes the transmitter symbol to be outline Color Scheme Pressing this button will bring the Color Scheme Dialog which allows the user to customize the color of virtually any portion of the x-Wizard display screen, including the background color. Same Size With Zoom - This option will control the size of the cell symbols as you zoom in and out of the project area. Basically the symbol will maintain is scale based on your zoom level. This is a particularly useful feature when working in very dense urban areas where lots sites are in close proximity. Your options are: Fixed Size - The symbol size will remain a constant pixel width at any zoom level Use Nominal Radius - The size of the symbol will change but retain an X Pixels/mi size that you specify
Cell Label this frame controls whether the cell number, name, creator, ID, status or creator is displayed on screen. Wireless Explorer Selection Properties Label this label controls the Map animation when selecting entities on the Wireless Explorer. It allows setting a fixed Flash Duration and Flash Speed of entities in the Map when using the Wireless Explorer. Selecting the Color Scheme sub option will display the Color Scheme dialog which allows the user to customize the color of virtually any portion of the x-Wizard display screen, including the background color. See Color Scheme section bellow.
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These include, Cell Font Used for the cell names, IDs, and numbers in the Edit window. Legend Font Controls the font used in the Legend window. Overlay Font Used for the text in any overlay files. Antenna Font Used for the data in the antenna pattern display. Small Antenna Font Used for labeling the horizontal and vertical antenna patterns in the antenna pattern display.
Selecting the Color by Statistics sub option will display the Color by Statistics dialog which allows Wizard to color transmitters based on fields specified in an external file or statistics file.
Selecting the Entity Relationship sub option will display the Entity Relationship dialog which allows the user o set the sectors to display based on a number of different parameters.
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Selecting the Active by Status sub option will display the Active by Status dialog which allows the user to organized cell display based on status. See Section 5.7 Display Cell site Using Statuses "Active by Status" Selecting the Activate by Group sub option will display the Group Assignment & Entity Selection dialog which allows the user to organized cell display based on groups. See Section 5.9 Using Groups for more detail.
9.2.2 Grids (Raster Data)

The Grids (Raster Data) has various options to allow the user to manipulate the display of grids on the map. Analysis (F9) It allows/disallows the displayed of the Analysis on the Map. By performing a right mouse click on the Analysis option a sub menu with a set of options will be displayed.
Selecting the Properties option will display the Analysis Display Parameter dialog, allowing the user to change the Analysis bands display. Selecting the Display Options option will display the Analysis Display Options dialog. The Analysis Display Options Dialog has the following option.
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Combo Display Style
Character Display Style
Area Display Style Using Contours & Granularity 2
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Area (non-plain)-Interpolated Display Style
Bin Values Analysis Highlight/Dim Option Label It provides Analysis Highlight and Dim option features to the user which some in handy when viewing multiple grids on the map. Highlight Luminance Factor Edit Box: Edit box to enter the amount of dimming to be performed for non highlighted areas. The acceptable range is from -100 to 100, where positive values imply lightning the colors; while negative imply darkening the colors. -100 implies the color is changed to black, while 100 implies the color will be changed to white. Highlight Isolated Entity Check Box: option to select if isolated entities are to be highlighted while dimming non isolated ones. 1. The feature will be only activated if the option is selected in the UI and the Isolate Entity mode is turned on. 2. The currently entity display resolution and the selected entity list will be used to determine whether the bin in the analysis grid will be highlighted or not. 3. If an entity is to be highlighted, it means the assigned colors will be used for display without any color modification. If and entity is to be dimmed, the specified illumination factor will be applied to the assigned color and then displayed. Both positive and negative lamination factors are possible implying lightening or darkening respectively. 132
Optimi Corp Highlight Analysis Area based on Clutter threshold Check Box : option to select if analysis grid areas are to be highlighted/dimmed based on clutter threshold criteria Clutter Threshold Operator Drop List: option to select the operator used to compare analysis data with clutter threshold. The following operators should be selectable: >=, >, <=, <, =, <> Selecting the Show Previously Run Analysis option will display the Previously Run Analysis dialog which allows to display previously run analyses. See Section 11.8 Previously Run Analysis for more detail.
Selecting the Entity Relationship option will display the Entity Relationship dialog which allows to changes the entity level at which x-Wizard results are displayed.
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Clutter (Alt+F9) - It allows/disallows the displayed of the Clutter on the Map. By performing a right mouse click on the Clutter option a sub menu with a set of options will be displayed.
Selecting the Properties option will display the Edit Clutter Adjustment File Dialog which allows Clutter adjustments allow to control how much the local morphology effects the RF signal. See Section 13 Clutter Adjustment for more details. Selecting the Display Options option will display the Clutter Display Options Dialog which allows changing the display styles of the Clutter Grid on the Map. Drawing Styles you can select different ways to display the bind grid data thats created with clutter. Lines Uses simple lines to display the clutter. The thickness of the lines can be edited in the TECC.ini file settings Characters Uses characters to display the clutter. Multiple characters are used in a single band of color. Bin Values - Shows the actual calculated value for that bin. Terrain (Ctrl + F9) - It allows/disallows the displayed of the Terrain on the Map. By performing a right mouse click on the Terrain option a sub menu with a set of options will be displayed.
Selecting the Properties option will display the Show Terrain Dialog which shows the current project's terrain using band colors for elevation ranges. This dialog box allows you to select the terrain viewing bands and tailor the legend window's information that accompanies the terrain display in the Edit window. See Section 4 Terrain Files and the Bin Grid for more details.
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Selecting the Bands Colors Dialog option will display the Terrain Colors Dialog which allows the user to specify the color for each band displayed. Wizard allows to specify 48 band colors to display. Selecting the Display Options option will display the Terrain Data Display Options Dialog which allows changing the display styles of the Terrain data Grid on the Map. Drawing Styles you can select different ways to display the bind grid data thats created with terrain data. Lines Uses simple lines to display the terrain data. The thickness of the lines can be edited in the TECC.ini file settings Characters Uses characters to display the terrain data. Multiple characters are used in a single band of color. Bin Values - Shows the actual calculated value for that bin. Measured Data (Ctrl + M) - It allows/disallows the displayed of the Measured Data on the Map. By performing a right mouse click on the Measured Data option a sub menu with a set of options will be displayed.
Selecting the Properties option will display the Show Measured Dialog which shows the user to select a measured data to display.
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Selecting the Display Options option will display the Measured Data Display Options Dialog which allows changing the display styles of the Measured data Grid on the Map. Drawing Styles you can select different ways to display the bind grid data thats created with measured data. Lines Uses simple lines to display the measured data. The thickness of the lines can be edited in the TECC.ini file settings Characters Uses characters to display the measured data. Multiple characters are used in a single band of color. Bin Values - Shows the actual calculated value for that bin.
Demand - It allows/disallows the displayed of the Demand Grid on the Map. By performing a right mouse click on the Demand option a sub menu with a set of options will be displayed. Selecting the Display Options option will display the Analysis Display Options dialog.
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9.2.3 Picture Files (Vector Data)

The information contained in this sub tree allows the selection of pictures, overlays, and Shared Pictures files among other projects to be shown on screen. Selected Files Options This option will display in the map window all pictures/layers files present in the Selected Files. The order of the layers determines the order that the layers are drawn. The drawing order in xWizard starts at the bottom of the list -- the last layer to be drawn on the map view is the top layer of the display files list. Because a layer has been drawn last, all other layers are underneath the last layer of the display files list when they are drawn in the map view. Therefore, moving the layers (dragging them) so that the analysis layer is on the bottom of the list in the display files will display the analysis results under the, roads, counties boundaries, or any other layer. The uses is allowed to Move Up, Move Down, Set as Editable or Deselect picture files by performing a right mouse click on the desire picture file.
By performing a right mouse click on the Picture Files (Vector Data) option several other options will be available.
Import MapInfo MIF File It will allow the user the import MapInfo MIF files. Set Display by Distance Thresholds It will display the Picture File Thresholds dialog which allows the user to set a distance threshold for each displayed picture file.
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If the minimum distance (both north/south and east/west) on the geographic display is less than threshold distance, that overlay is shown. Set up thresholds for high-resolution street data such as those provided by MapInfo or other GIS data suppliers. This will greatly increase screen refresh or redraw rates when zoomed out above the threshold limits.
Create Picture Files Allows the user to create picture files based on what the user has displayed on the screen.
Set Active Layer Allows adding your own drawing data to the x-Wizard map. To save the currently active map, enter a name in the Picture Name edit box, and then press OK.
Available option The Available option divides the picture files in three types, Pictures, Overlays, and Shared Pictures. Files that have not yet been selected for display appear in the Available Files tree. To move 138
Optimi Corp a file from the Available to the Selected Files Options , double click on the file or do a right mouse click and select the Select Option. By performing a right mouse click on the Pictures option the user is presented with the option to Import MapInfo MIF Files or Create Pictures Files.
The Shared Pictures Folder Option will contained pictures files that have been shared between projects. Picture files can be added to the Shared Picture folder by simply dragging a picture file to the Shared Pictures folder. The same is true for Shared Pictures.
9.2.4 Mapping
The information contained in this sub tree allows the user to display various mapping display options. Tick Marks It allows the user to control the frequency or resolution of tick marks and whether or not they are displayed. Tick marks are useful for aligning plots that are overlaid on topographical maps and on-screen references. Performing a right mouse click on the Tick Marks option will allow selecting the Property option which will display the Tick Marks Options dialog.
Map Scale- Checking this option will cause the Map Scale to be displayed on the map. To move the map scale, drag it with the left mouse button. If the mapscale bar is placed along an edge or corner of the screen, it will be drawn inside the screen when the screen is printed. Controlling the Properties of the Scale Bar Performing a right mouse click on the Map Scale Option and selecting the Property option, or simply by double- click method on the active map scale will allow adjustments to the Map Scale Properties dialog to be displayed.
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Distance if set to Auto, x-Wizard automatically determines the appropriate distance to show on the scale. If set to Fixed at, specify the distance shown on the scale. When set to Auto, the scale box will stay approximately the same size when zooming. When set to Fixed at, the scale box will vary greatly in size depending on the zoom. Border Type this controls the border of the scale bar box. Valid border width values are 1-5. Thickness controls the thickness of the actual scale line. Valid thickness values are 1-10. Plot Settings these settings are used when plotting to an output device. If selected, the Scale Background Transparent option makes the background of the scale area transparent so that map detail shows through. If the Show Scaling Factor And Projection option is selected, the actual scale value (for example 1:250,000) and the selected map projection are printed in the scale box. Map Point this option allows the user to launch the Microsoft MapPoint Engine to be displayed on the Wizard Map.
Performing a right mouse click on the Map Point Option will allow selecting the Property option which will display the MapPoint Options dialog.
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This Dialog allows user to select MapPoint display style. The MapPoint display options include Political, Road, Road and Data, Data, and Terrain. The Display MapPoint on Top sets the MapPoint display on top of all other display layers in the map view. Terra Server It allows the user the display the Terra Server Map Engine on the Wizard Map. Performing a right mouse click on the Terra Server Option will allow selecting the Property option will display the Terra Server Options dialog.
which
The Image Type will allow for control of the type of image you request from the Terra Server (note not all image types are available for all areas.) Optional Parameters Proxy Server - if you use a proxy server for internet access you can enter its address and port number here to have the request to download from the terra server web site go through the proxy.
9.2.5 Geographic Image

The information contained in this sub tree allows the selection of Project Specific Images and Shared Images to be displayed on screen. Selected Options This option will display in the map window all Geographic Images files present in the Selected Options. The uses is allowed to Move Up, Move Down, Set as Editable or Deselect picture files by performing a right mouse click on the desire picture file. The use is also allowed to set the Coordinate Location of the Geographic Image by selecting the Properties Option.
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Available option The Available option divides the Geographic Image in two types, Project Images and Shared Images. Files that have not yet been selected for display appear in the Available tree. To move a file from the Available to the Selected Options , double click on the file or do a right mouse click and select the Select Option. The Shared Images Folder Option will contained Geographic Images files that have been shared between projects. Geographic Images files can be added to the Shared Images folder by simply dragging a Geographic Image file to the Shared Image folder.
9.2.6 Location Data

The Location Data sub tree allows the user to display Airport, AM Towers, and FCC Towers location data. Prior displaying any location data user must import the desired location data by going to the Import -> Airport Database, Import -> AM Location Database, and FAA/FCC Tower Database options. See Section 18.2 Appendix II Towers and Location Based Data for more details.
9.2.7 Legend
The Legend sub tree presents the users with two legends options, Show Legend and Legend On Top. Show Legend It allows the user to display or not the layer by selecting or un-selecting this option. Legend on TopThe user has the option to always have the legend on top or behind the map view.
9.3
Map Annotations
You may draw directly in the map view to create custom (enhanced) picture files that highlight or add areas of concern. These files may also be labeled with text. Additionally, map objects may be assigned values for later creation of user defined bin grids such as clutter and traffic demand.
The various buttons in the drawing toolbar will allow for drawing: 142 Rectangles Ellipses Lines
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Polygons Free lines Text Changing the pen/line width Foreground/border color Filling color Font type size Adding values Running area statistics for closed shapes for Screen labels
Drawing Rectangles To draw rectangles, select the rectangle mode and begin to draw by clicking view. The place where the user clicks is the starting point; the place where the mouse is released is the ending point. Once the mouse is released, the user can change the drawing mode or continue to draw rectangles. Drawing Ellipses To draw ellipses, select the ellipse mode and follow the same process as provided for the rectangle. Again, where the user clicks is the starting point and where the mouse is released is the ending point. Once the user releases the mouse, change the drawing mode or continue drawing ellipses. Drawing Lines Drawing Lines and Polygons are a little different from drawing anything else. xWizard's line is continuous much like a polygon, but not closed. To draw a line, select the line mode; select the place where the place where the first line segment will start and end and the next line will new begin and so on. To finish drawing continuous line segments, double click on screen. The place clicked will be the end of the last line segment. Drawing Polygons To draw polygons, left click on the points where the corners of the polygon are to be. To close the polygon, simply double click. The place where you double-click will be the last point of the polygon. A closing line will be drawn from the starting point to the final point. Drawing Free Lines To draw free lines, select the free draw button and left click anywhere in the map view. The faster your mouse motions are the fewer numbers of points per line. If your intention is to create clutter or a demand grid, it is most effective to use slow fluid mouse movements. Drawing Text To draw text, select the text mode and click where text is to be inserted. The cursor will be displayed on that point inside a text box for typing. The editing box will disappear when the mouse mode is changed, another place is selected on the screen, the key ESC is pressed; the text will then be printed on the x-Wizard project screen.
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The text will be drawn with the font size and type currently selected in the combo boxes. The color of the text will be the foreground color. Formatting Pixel Width Select the pixel width by clicking the dropdown arrow on the pixel width button: To change the pixel width of objects already drawn on screen, first select the object to be changed then change the selection and click pixel width. Foreground Color Select a foreground color from the drop-down list as shown below:
Select this box for No Fill To select a color other than the 20 default colors provided, click Other. The default foreground color is blue. To change the color of something that is already drawn on screen, select it and then click the foreground button, not the dropdown arrow. Filling Color the filling color is selected in the same way as the foreground color. To change the filling color of objects already drawn on screen, select the objects and click Filling Color. The objects selected will then be filled with the selected color. For no color or No Fill inside the selected polygon, select the very last box in the fill dropdown menu. Selecting Shapes to select shapes on screen, select a drawing mode and a mouse style button. Then, select all of the figures to be edited. To return to drawing, turn the selected mouse style button off by clicking on it. Everything that is selected will be highlighted. 144
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The selection of objects is a little different from most mapping tools. Selections are all displayed by a white rectangle surrounding the object. When polygons overlap, one white rectangle surrounds each object selected. The selected shapes may be changed once selected. Only objects from the active layer may be selected in the Map Options Tab, (the layer with the little pencil icon next to it). The active layer is also shown in the layer combo box in the drawing toolbar.
Saving all drawing is associated with the active layer (the one that is currently selected in the combo box). When you change the active layer by selecting another layer, x-Wizard will prompt the question Do you want to save changes to active layer?
The same question will appear when you leave the project or close x-Wizard. You can directly save a map annotation picture file by using Tools > Save Annotation or the shortcut Ctrl+N. Adding New Picture Layers In the Map Options Tab Picture Files Layer , do a right click to select Create Picture Files or Save Active Layer with a new name. . After selecting, the following dialog appears:
In this case, -90 Signal Problem Areas is the name of the new empty layer that will be created. After creating a new layer, the layer may be selected, dragged, and manipulated through Map Options Tab Picture File section. Displaying New Pictures the new picture files (map annotations) will be listed in the Available Files list box in Control Display, when the option Enhanced Picture is selected. The map annotation picture files can be Essentials of x-Wizard 145
Optimi Corp selected in the same way that roads and city names are selected by double clicking the name of the layer. To erase, follow the same procedure. All layers (map annotations) selected in this way will be listed in the Active Box in the drawing toolbar. The layer currently selected will be the active layer and will be selected in the layers Active box in the drawing toolbar. Deleting a whole Layer this is done in the same way that we delete overlays in x-Wizard: Select File > Delete, then select project specific, and browse to Enhanced Picture file. Highlight the Picture file(s) you want to delete and click delete. Multiple Users the available picture files are project specific because the selected picture files in the combo box are associated with a user. One user can work in the same project and view different map annotation layers while another user works on the same project. Multiple users may view the same map annotation layers; however, multiple users CAN NOT edit the same map annotation at the same time. The only layer that can be edited at the same time as the active layer is the cosmetic layer since it is saved at the user level and is user specific. Active Picture Layer:
Selectable Picture Layer:
The Cosmetic Layer you can start drawing when you first open a project. The edits are made at the cosmetic layer. This file may be changed at anytime and saved to change the active layer. What is this cosmetic layer? The cosmetic layer is a draft layer where information is drawn and assigned. The cosmetic layer behaves the same as any other layer; changes to this layer may be saved to a different, active layer. When the cosmetic layer is saved to a different file through the Tools > Save Annotations or Ctrl + N procedure, it will be emptied into this new file. The cosmetic layer is always the first layer to be drawn. All layers can be dragged to different positions in the Map Options Tab Picture Files Selected files section , but the cosmetic layer cannot be moved.
9.4
Assigning Values to Objects
x-Wizard users can draw an object around, along, and within an area of interest and assign a set of values to this area (different types of fields). These fields can be meaningful to x-Wizard, such as clutter, or have a valuable meaning to the user, such as inhabitants. x-Wizard users may add comment fields to record reminders, observations from surveys and such. The set of fields is associated with a layer. If you add a field to an object, this field will be present for every object in the layer. The value for this new field is not assigned data. To assign a value to a drawing object, first select the object. After selecting the object, values tool : (square, circle, line, polygon, free line, and text) click the add
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The field name should be meaningful to the type of data. Data type could be integer, float or string. The length is the number of digits for the type of integer and float, and the number of characters for strings. If the type chosen is float, a new property will be added. Decimal places are the number of decimal places for float numbers. The new field will now appear in the original dialog.
At this point, you can assign a value to this field by clicking on the null field and changing it to a value or number. To remove already created fields, click Remove Fields. A list of the available fields will appear. Remember that these fields are associated with the whole layer. Deleting these fields from one object deletes them from the whole layer. The following warning appears once the user clicks OK:
The last option, See Properties, allows you to see the properties of an already created field. To view these properties, first click the field name -- the field name will be highlighted in yellow:
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The above example shows that the MEARLANG field is selected. To see the properties of this field, click See Properties.
Only objects from the active layer may be selected, therefore, only objects in the active layer may be assigned values. Multi-User Mode Map annotations are project specific. All users can see any the layers associated with a project. However, if one user has a layer active, no other user can select that layer for editing. Other users will see the changes made to a layer by another user once the layer is saved and the screen is refreshed. Assigning values to more than one object Select many objects in the active layer and then press Add value; the dialog will appear in the following way:
Since we do not know what values to view (more than one object is selected), Multiple Selection will appear instead of the selected fields value. If changes to a fields values are made while in this mode, all selected objects will have this new value for that field if the Assign Value to All option is selected. If the field is changed to a value with the Distribute Value option selected, the values entered will be distributed though out all the objects selected. Fields that are not updated hold their original value. Once you get the data value assigned to the objects you want, you can create clutter or traffic grids based on these data annotations. To use this feature select File > Create > Grid from Picture File.
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9.5
Area Statistics
It is often required that network engineers provide statistical data for coverage analysis. x-Wizard can help in this process with the Area Statistics mode that can be run on any polygon that is created in x-Wizard. To use the area statistics mode first create a polygon of the study area, and select that polygon.
Then you must select the Area Statistics button from the drawing bar. of the selected polygon will be displayed.
Once selected the statistical data
The statistics that will be shown to you are based on the display bands you have set for the current analysis. The number of bins and square mileage will also be giving. If you would like to save these statistics in an output file just click on Make List and save the results.
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The Create Statistics For dropdown list will allow you to create statistics based on whatever is displayed in the map view such as Analysis, Clutter, and Terrain
You can isolate individual sites or entities simply by choosing the Filter by Grid Area dropdown and choose one of the entities. *Note the map view must be displayed at the entity resolution you are trying to isolate. So if you want to view transmitter statistics, just select F8 then the TX level prior to running area statistics
A Bar diagram sill also give you a representation of the distribution of your display bands. This graph will change based on your selections above. Also you can re-order this data based on aggregation of the bands by selecting your aggregation method as
9.6
Zoom
As with many Windows graphical applications, the mouse can be used to perform the zoom function. To set the mouse mode to zoom, click Zoom on the toolbar. The mouse cursor will show the word Zoom under it in the geographic display window. The Zoom mode always uses a Box style. In the same map view window, click and drag with the left mouse button to select the area to Zoom to. A white rectangle will represent the Zoom area. To Cancel a Zoom Operation -- Once you have released the left mouse button to begin a zoom, you cannot cancel the zoom. However, if you have begun the zoom process by dragging open a zoom box, but have not yet released the left mouse button, you can still cancel this zoom. To cancel, before releasing the mouse button, drag to a point at the same horizontal or vertical position as the starting point and release the mouse button when the white rectangle disappears. Once the mouse button is released to perform a zoom, the drawing of the analysis and the subsequent overlays may be canceled by pressing the Escape key. While the analysis is still drawing, the escape key option will cancel the drawing of the analysis. Subsequent escape key presses will cancel the drawing of any overlays that have not yet started. Once an overlay has started to draw, the drawing of that overlay cannot be canceled. Zoom to Project Boundaries The View > Zoom > Zoom to Project Boundaries menu item allows you to zoom to the project bounds. A shortcut to this function is Ctrl Z. 150
Optimi Corp Center Zoom the View > Zoom > Center Zoom menu item allows you to zoom on specified coordinates. You can specify the coordinates or select a cell site from within x-Wizard. You may specify the view distance north/south and east/west from this center point in degrees, miles, or kilometers. This feature is very useful to bring an edit window and a view window to the same zoom in order to compare analysis results.
The distance to zoom that you set here will also be saved as the distance that is used when you right click and zoom on a site in the WEX
Boundary Zoom The View > Zoom > Boundary Zoom menu item allows you to zoom into a user-entered boundary area. By default, this will be the project boundary. You may change the boundary to any desired coordinates. Save Zoom the View > Zoom > Save Zoom menu item allows you to save the current zoom with a specified name. This zoom can then be recalled using the View > Zoom > Restore Zoom command. Recall Zoom the View > Zoom > Recall Zoom menu item allows the user to recall a saved zooms. Select the desired zoom and click OK. Zoom Auto-filling (specify area) when zooming into an area, X-WIZARD will automatically fill the entire geographic display screen. This is accomplished by zooming to the area specified within the rectangle and then filling either down or right depending on the shape of the zoom area in relationship to the shape of the map view. By holding the 'Ctrl' key down and zooming into an area, you can override the auto-fill feature and zoom only into the specified area. The remainder of the geographic display screen will remain gray. During a print operation, only the filled portion of the geographic display is printed. Right Mouse Button Usage a shortcut to the zoom operation is accomplished with the right mouse button menu. With the mouse cursor in an active map view window, clicking the Right mouse button to bring up the right click menu. The Zoom In and Zoom Out distances are set by your Zoom Percentage. To change you Zoom Percentage select View > Zoom > Zoom Percentage, and then enter the percent of zoom you want to increase (zoom in) or decrease (zoom out) every time you use the right click zooming features.
9.7
Color Schemes
You can define the display colors that are used within x-Wizard and save them as a color scheme. Changing Color Scheme the color of virtually any portion of the x-Wizard display screen, including the background color, can be changed. Under the Format menu, select Color Scheme. This results in the following dialog:
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The Appearance frame displays the current colors the items that are selected under the Category drop-down list. When Show Screen Colors is selected, the items reflect the foreground and background color for each item, as it will be displayed on screen. When Show Printer Colors is selected, the items represent the foreground and background color, as they will appear on a color printer. The background color may be selected in the Printer Color section. This will cause the background to be filled with the selected color on a printout! *Be careful -- one E-size plot can use a lot of black ink. By selecting any item listed in the Appearance frame, the information associated with that particular item will automatically show on the respective areas of the dialog box. For instance, selecting Highlighted Entity will cause the field item to change to highlighted entity and the screen color and printer color boxes to show the colors used for a highlighted entity on the screen and printer. By double clicking on any item in the Appearance frame, the Color dialog box is invoked allowing you to change the color for that item. When double clicking, the selected Show Screen Colors and Show Printer Colors options control whether the color will be selected for the screen or the printer. The Scheme drop-down list allows you to select a color scheme. You can select any previously saved color scheme or the defaults. The Category drop-down list allows you to select the category of the items that will appear in the Appearance frame and in the Item drop-down list, making these items available for edit. The list includes General, Entity Status, Objects (airports, towers, etc.), Channel Relationships, Channel Codes, Neighbor Lists, Microwave Path, and Scale Window. The Item drop-down list allows you to select the item of interest from the selected category. To change the color of a particular item, select the appropriate option or select the default. The default option will reset the color of the selected item to the default color. By choosing Change, the standard Windows color palate will be shown. Select the desired color and click OK. Saving Color Schemes to save a particular color scheme, select the colors for each item by clicking on the item and assigning a color, click on Save and type a new name or select an existing name and click OK. If there is an existing color scheme, a dialog box will appear asking you if you wish to overwrite the existing color scheme. Clicking Yes will overwrite the existing scheme. By clicking No, nothing is saved. After selecting OK, the new color scheme becomes the selected color scheme. If OK is clicked in the Change Color Scheme dialog, the new color scheme is applied. If Cancel is clicked, the new scheme is saved, but not applied. 152
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By clicking Use Screen Color for Printer, the printer color of the selected item will be the same as the screen color. The Change and Use Default options will not be available when Use Screen Color for Printer is selected. By changing the color of any one item under a particular color scheme, you will be asked to save the new changes. If you choose yes, the color changes will be incorporated into the current color scheme. If the user selects No or Cancel, no changes will be made.
9.8
Changing Font
Select Format > Fonts to change fonts. This results in the following dialog box:
The various options in the Change Fonts dialog represent different elements of x-Wizard for which the fonts may be specified. Cell Font this is used for the cell names, IDs, and numbers in the Edit window and controls the fonts for channels and other textual screen data except overlays shown by x-Wizard. Legend Font this controls the font used in the Legend window and the Legend on plots. Overlay Font this is used for the text in all overlay files. Antenna Font this is used for the data in the antenna pattern display. Small Antenna Font this is the font used for labeling the horizontal and vertical antenna patterns in the Antenna Pattern display.
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10
Specialized Coverage Analyses
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10.1 Overlapping Coverage

The Overlapping Coverage analysis predicts coverage to the limit specified in the Band Limits for each entity without regard for other entities. That is, it will stack the output grids on top of each other. This results in an overlapping coverage depiction. Overlapping coverage analyses are performed at a particular entity resolution and must be recalculated for other entity resolutions. It is also very difficult to distinguish between overlapping signals if more than four entities are involved. This analysis is best used to look at the overlap only between two entities. The Show Coverage mouse mode button utilizes the overlapping coverage analysis to show quick cell coverage at the transmitter level. Optimi recommends running overlapping coverage with an Area Fill output setting with a granularity of 2 or more, it also helps if you have contours enabled so you can see the boarders of the coverage.
10.2 Reverse Link

x-Wizard can help with reverse link prediction based on a mobile (phone) transmit power provided. Imagine that a mobile or subscriber unit has been placed in each bin for this analysis. x-Wizard has four options to determine reverse link coverage as follows:
Probability this is the probability that the reverse link will be closed. This value is based on the receiver sensitivity of the serving transmitter/receiver, standard deviation of the prediction model, reverse link power budget, and the received signal level at the serving transmitter/receiver. The received signal level at the serving transmitter/receiver is a function of the attenuation factor and the predicted path loss. Received SU Power is the received signal level at the serving transmitter/receiver from a subscriber unit type at any given bin. Required SU power is the required TX power level of a subscriber unit at any given bin to close the reverse link. This value is a function of the receiver sensitivity of the serving transmitter/receiver, standard deviation of the prediction model, reverse link power budget, predicted path loss and attenuation factor. 158
Optimi Corp Path imbalance is the difference between forward link path loss and reverse link path loss. This value depends on the components defined in the power budget. If the value is positive, the system is forward link limited; if the value is negative, the system is reverse link limited. Formulas used to determine forward and reverse link path loss : Forward link PL = (predicted environmental PL) + (gains and losses of the TX power budget) Reverse link PL = (predicted environmental PL) + (gains and losses of the RX power budget)
10.3 Number of Servers

Number of Servers analysis predicts how many transmitters serve each bin based on a minimum-serving signal level specified. The bands represent the number of servers in each bin. In the Minimum Serving Signal frame, you may specify whether the minimum serving signal level is taken from the transmitter section of the cell data dialog or overridden by the value that you specify in the Override option.
10.4 Path Loss

The concept of path loss is central to any RF planning tool; x-Wizard has the capability of geographically displaying path loss information using this analysis. It is very much like x-Wizards Coverage analysis; xWizard already internally carries out the required path loss calculations. In this analysis, instead of predicting the received power in dBm, the Path Loss analysis predicts the path loss in dB.
Your options for this analysis are to calculate either Forward or Reverse link path loss.
10.5 Most Likely Server

Most Likely Server analysis determines what sector or cell serves a bin based on a specific calculation method. Refer to Appendix I, Server Calculation Methods for an explanation of how the server is determined. The most likely server is based on the calculation criteria (method) that x-Wizard is instructed to use. x-Wizard will report the serving transmitter, and the analysis result, at any given bin.
10.6 Joint Probability

Joint Probability analysis predicts the probability of receiving a signal that is at least Reference Signal Level strength. The probability of service for any bin is affected by the number of transmitters that provide signal to that bin, the level of signal provided by each transmitter, and the standard deviation of the signals predicted for that bin for each transmitter. The probability of receiving a specified signal level in any bin from a single transmitter is based on the predicted value within that bin for that transmitter and the standard deviation of the prediction. x-Wizard predicts the mean signal level for each bin from each transmitter that results in a 50% probability that the signal level in that bin will be at or above the predicted level, and a 50% probability that the signal level will be lower than predicted. If x-Wizard predicts the signal level for a bin from a single transmitter to be -90 dBm, the probability of receiving a -90 dBm or greater signal in that bin is only 50%. However, if the predicted value is different from the desired reference signal, the probability of receiving that reference signal is determined by utilizing a table of normal probability distribution for the specified standard deviation and predicted signal value. If two transmitters are providing coverage for a bin, the probability of receiving a given signal level in that bin is increased over the probability of a single transmitter providing coverage to that bin. The probability is calculated as 1-(PN1)(PN2)(PNn) where PNn is the probability that any individual transmitter will not reach the 159
Optimi Corp desired signal level. The bands displayed are a percentage and represent the probability of receiving a signal that is at least Reference Signal Level strong.
10.7 Line Of Sight

Line of Sight (LOS) propagation occurs when there is an unobstructed line of sight between the transmitter and receiver. For the most part, the LOS presents the most favorable propagation condition and whenever possible, an attempt is made to position TX-RX pair so that the line of sight between them is free from obstructions. The LOS requirement becomes more critical with an increase of the operating frequency and for the frequencies above 3GHz; the communication without LOS becomes highly unreliable. The LOS analysis is a composite of the following calculations: LOS analysis determines the line of sight for each transmitter. This is very similar to the Propmod analysis in that it gets the path profile for all the bins and does some calculations to determine if the bin has line of sight with the transmitter or not. Free space path loss analysis calculates the free space path loss for all the bins that have line of sight with the transmitter of interest. Line of Sight analysis generates a set of grids that summarizes the line of sight and free space path loss information for each bin in the map Entity level LOS analysis is a coverage analysis, which generates the entity level line of sight grid using the individual transmitters that belong to each entity.
Parameter Descriptions:
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Optimi Corp Select Clutter if specified the height information from the clutter grid will be added to the terrain elevation before including the bin in the analysis. Fresnel zone clearance factorThreshold used to determine the LOS condition in the analysis. Height of the receiver Height of the receiver antenna above local terrain; specified either in feet or meters depending on the measurement selection for the project (edit project screen). Earth curvature factor Factor used to adjust the radio path heights. Standard is 1.33 Maximum calculation distance the bins outside of this distance are considered as non-LOS bins. Operating frequency Frequency in MHz Max. # TX to include in calculations specify the maximum number of LOS transmitters counted per bin. This Entered in Miles or Kilometers depending on the measurement selection for the project. Use antenna's horizontal beam width Eliminates all points outside the horizontal antenna beam width. In other words, only the bins that are within the horizontal beam width of the transmitter antenna are evaluated for the LOS condition. Show Specifies what the results that will be displayed after the analysis is completed. The LOS analysis produces three outputs that are listed as: Overlapping area is provides a display that is very similar to the exiting overlapping coverage analysis. It draws the LOS areas of individual transmitters (entities). The areas are drawn one by one where the last one drawn overlaps the previous ones. This analysis will work in isolate mode as well. The star and point modes are not supported. Number of TX For a given bin, the display provides count of the transmitters that have an unobstructed LOS path. Free space path loss displays the minimum free space path loss between a given bin and the closest transmitter.
10.8 Previously Run Analysis

The View Previous Run Analysis option will let you recall previous runs of your analysis by selecting them from the list and choosing the "show" option. To see the previously run analysis please use the Analysis Manager tab located below the Wireless Explorer. For more details regarding Analysis Manager please refer to: Appendix X Understanding how the Analysis Manager functionality works
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All analysis that are current will be listed in order that they were run. You can add your own notes to the analysis by selecting the analysis and clicking on the Edit Notes option. The Show Delta utility is used to show the difference between your current analysis and a previous one. To use this you must first have an analysis displayed in the x-Wizard map view (either run one or use the show button here), then select View > Previously Run Analysis, and finally select the older analysis the you want to compare and click Show Delta. The bands for the show delta display are the difference in dB between the two analyses. The bands can be adjusted using the Property Option available in the Map Options Tab> Grids> Analysis section and performing a right mouse click or by pressing (F7).
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11
Measured Data Integration
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11.1 Measured Data Functionality

The purpose of the x-Wizard interface with measured data is to enable the user to see measured signal levels and to compare the measured signals values to predicted values using a process collectively known as Propagation Model Optimization (PMO). This provides the user with the ability to validate and fine-tune the prediction model based on real world readings that will include all possible attenuation factors. You can also use this measured data to optimize your clutter data, which will be covered in the next section. The Measured Data function in x-Wizard is NOT intended to replace the capabilities of the measured data processing program that is included with the measurement device. Its intent is to help the x-Wizard user tune the propagation model and clutter files for a more accurate prediction result.
11.2 Importing Measured Data

Export formats from the various data collection systems may be directly importable into x-Wizard or they may need formatting prior to the import process. x-Wizard imports all files as ASCII text. Sample formats and instructions for extraction of the data from various collection systems supported by x-Wizard are available in both the help files and by contacting the x-Wizard support team. Optimi is constantly trying to implement the various collection systems formats into x-Wizard. If your company uses a collection device that is not available in the list, you can manipulate that data into the other formats or the generic format. You may also let us know what collection device you have and we will try to implement its format into x-Wizard. x-Wizard processes scanning data, not tracking data. Scanning data is the collection of signal levels of individual (or multiple) channels gathered to measure the signal strength of particular channels regardless of call processing control. Tracking data actually tracks a call in progress. Measured data is imported into multiple files, each containing the signal level measurements of only one channel per file. This data is imported by selecting File > Import > Measured Data. x-Wizard supports the importation of both received signal level data and CDMA data (CDMA is for viewing only). In the data type frame, the user selects received signal level, then selects the appropriate data type in the From drop-down list.
The From Options allows to select the various measured data formats that Wizard allows to import. 164
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Use Browse to locate the file to be imported. In the destination file frame, enter the desired name for the measured data being imported. Select Import when ready. The Combine Files into one option will append all your separate drives (i.e. log files) into one file for xWizard to use. This way you dont have to select each file separately to display. The Associate Measured Data Option allows to automatically assigning measured data while importing data into a Wizard project. Association requires a mapping file that connects sector names (or ID in switch) with the imported channel number.
Measured data is also allowed to be imported and exported using the File > Import > Project Data option, and File > Export> Project Data option
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11.3 Viewing Measured Data

In the map view, the measured data can be displayed individually or displayed as a strongest measured signal plot combining multiple channels. To display the measured data, select View > Measured Data.
Selection the Received Signal Level options shown in the picture above will display the following dialog.
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Reference Grid this grid controls the area and resolution used when the measured data is viewed. For most functions, the reference grid only controls the resolution. For viewing measured data, the reference grid also serves to limit the area. It is highly recommended that you select the terrain file for your project as your reference grid. The data is converted from a point format into a bin format. This is accomplished by averaging the signal level values (in dBm) of all measured data points which fall within a single bin in the reference grid into a single value which represents the mean measured signal level of that bin. This is known as local area means. Make sure enough points exist to be valid. The smaller the bins, the fewer points there will be in a bin to create the local means.
50 samples every 40 wavelength are averaged into a LM (Local Mean)
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The LM's inside a bin are averaged to obtain a LAM (Local Area Mean) Select the measured channel to view and click OK. A new view window containing the selected data will be displayed. Channel selection is toggled on or off using the mouse. Selecting any one channel allows you to see the individual channel. Selecting multiple channels allows you to see a strongest measured signal plot. Click OK to get the signal level screen:
In this dialog, you can select the number of bands and band limits that will be used to display the measured data. When viewing measured data, notice that channel reuse is easily seen as distinct areas of stronger signal level values within the same measured data file. It is also easy to see where adjacent channels are used by noticing the increased signal levels in the immediate proximity of the adjacent channel transmitter. x-Wizard can display measured data in multiple display styles. View measured data using bins, bin values, characters, combo, and line mode. You can also change the different display styles by performing a right mouse click on the Map Options Tab Grids - Measured Data section and selecting the Display Options.
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Selection the CDMA Data menu options will display the following dialog.
The Show area allows selecting various different CDMA Measure Data displays. Selection the PN Scanner Data menu options will display the following dialog.
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Optimi Corp This option allows to Show Ec/Io, Io, and Total Power (Ec/Io + Io) CDMA Scanner Data.
11.4 Filter or Edit Measured Data

It is possible to edit or filter out unwanted areas of your drive test. This is useful for many reasons, but most importantly you can filter out signal reuse, which is a major issue when performing the Propagation Model Optimization. To start the measure data filter tool select Tools > Filter Measured Data:
Measured Data to Filter -This is where you select the file you want to edit/filter. All available channels stored in WMD (x-Wizard Measured Data) files are shown however only a single channel at a time may be filtered. Method - How do you want to change your measured data? You have the following options: Apply one of several Operation filters: + (Add) - add the value X to all measure data points - (Subtract) - subtract the value X to all measure data points * (Multiply) - multiply all the measure data points by value X / (Divide) - divide all the measure data points by value X = (Equal) - change all the measure data points to value X Select your filter area by the region options Region to Filter Wizard allows engineers to crop measured data for propagation modeling tuning. It allows selecting data outside of regions (in addition to inside) and to filter by clutter type (in addition to by Distance, by Cosmetic Layer, and by RSL). I t is important to note that any coordinates used must be the same coordinate/datum type specified in the Edit > Project screen. Limit Filter to Clutter - Allows filtering measured data based on the clutter file specified in the Edit Project dialog. Limit Filter by Distance - Allows the selection of an area using a point and the distance from that point. Enter a starting point in the lat & long section and a distance away from that point to filter. Clicking on the Select button will allow you to use the mouse in the map view to select both the starting point and dragging the mouse to your desired distance away from the starting point. Limit Filter to Cosmetic Layer - Allows the selection of an area using shapes from an enhanced picture file. If this filter option is selected you must select using the drop down menu which picture file you want to use as your area filter. It is important to note that the picture file you select will become the new cosmetic layer and 170
Optimi Corp any changes you made to the existing cosmetic layer will need to be saved if you want to retain them. xWizard will prompt you for the save when you switch layers. Limit Filter to RSL Range - Allows the selection of areas under RSL values in a particular range. Applying the Filter - Selecting Filter Data will then filter the data. Note a warring will display informing you that you are about to change your measured data file. Once applied the only way to restore the original file is to re-import the original drive test.
11.5 Measured Data Association

The Measured Data Association feature provides the ability to associate different measured files to a single transmitter. This means the collected drive test data for a transmitter along with other analysis parameters (such as cases to include/obstructions, check distance/area of interest) will be saved for further reference. The tedious effort involved with running repetitive propagation model tuning on many transmitters has been reduced. Multiple transmitters, each with associated measured data, can be queued for propagation model optimization analysis and be run simultaneously. This association of measured data and a particular transmitter remains in effect until the association is removed. Measured data should be imported prior to association. This permits the data to be used in any PMO analysis. If the measured data file(s) are associated prior to importing the measured data, these files will only be available for viewing from the Wireless Explorer (WEX). They will not be a selectable item in either of the PMO Analysis dialog nor will the file be available for viewing using View > Measured Data. Once measured data is associated to a TX, x-Wizard allows this data to be displayed based on the association. To accomplish this, expand the WEX down to the associated data under the target transmitter and right mouse click to display the menu as follows:
Select Show and the band selection screen will display the same as the method explained above, where you can select the signal strength that you want to display. *Measured data from projects created in versions of x-Wizard before 6.1 will need to be re-imported prior to associating the data to the transmitters. The association process requires the x-Wizard WMD file. The WMD file is created during the measured data import process. The processes for associating measured data files to transmitters can be accessed in two ways: From the Tools > Associate Measured Data menu Right Click on a transmitter in the WEX and choose Associate Measured Data
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The actual process is a four-step x-Wizard that will take you though the association for each transmitter. Step 1 The first step is to choose the Transmitter you are going to associate to the measure data file. Choose the Cell and then the transmitter from the lower box. If the transmitter you are looking for is inactive or invisible you can make them available via the Option checkboxes as shown below. Click next when you have chosen your TX.
Step 2 The next step is to browse to the measured data file that you want to associate to the transmitter you selected in step 1. Here you are going to browse to the .WMD (x-Wizard Measured Data) file. Click next when youre ready.
Step 3 The third step is to choose the channel that you want to associate to this transmitter. The channels will be displayed in a tree format. You simply have to point to the correct channel and click next.
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Step 4 The final step is to configure the signal information. You have to specify the minimal signal level to use in the Threshold box.
Distance will be the max check distance used. x-Wizard will not look past this level for any usable signal level. The GET command will have x-Wizard determine the max area based on the farthest bin away from the site that has a measured data point. It is important to realize this value will cause the calculation grids to be larger the further away from the site, so using the 'GET' command may help alleviate large grids. Threshold will let you set the minimum usable signal value for this measured data. When x-Wizard runs its Batched PMO analysis it will not consider any signal weaker than this as a usable signal.
x-Wizard uses these filtering methods when showing the measured data, or running an analysis against it. At least one of the methods must be selected. The Draw Boundary (i.e., Show Distance) selection draws a circle around the cell selected with your entered radius .
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If this is the only transmitter you are going to associate, you can click the Finnish button to complete the association. If you need to associate more, you can click on the Associate More button to go back to step 1.
11.6 Measured Data Shift

Due to possible mapping display and GPS differences, drive test data and the street level mapping may not always align. For this reason, the ability to shift a file of drive test measurements is required. The shift functionality is available from the measured data context menu (right-click) in the Wireless Explorer Tab.
Selecting Shift brings up the following dialog.
11.7 Comparing Measurements to Predictions

The PMO analysis allows for the comparison of the measured data signal strength to the predicted signal strength. This easily and efficiently optimizes the slope and intercept, and possibly some other parameters, in a propagation model based on the measured data. Analysis Parameters -- After viewing the measured data), select Analysis > Propagation Model Optimization then pick either the single mode or the batch mode. These options are slightly different and we will explain both. 174
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Single mode PMO allows a single transmitter to be run and optimized. The following dialog box will be displayed:
Transmitters using the drop-down list, select the transmitter of interest. Measured Data select the measured data file for the analysis. The measured data file was created earlier using the File > Import > Measured Data utility. If Use Assoc is selected, the available selection will be from the associated data only and the reference grid selection will be available. Reference Grid unless you are using associated data the resolution you are viewing the measured data at will be the Reference grid, and will not be selectable. Propagation Model this read-only field will display the currently selected model at the optimization entity level. Optimization Method this field will vary depending on the model being optimized. Most models allow for the slope/intercept & Foose factor (2 parameter) some additionally adjust the Effective Antenna Height Multiplier (3 parameters). Cases to Include Select the Obstructed option to include obstructed cases in the predicted data. Otherwise, the paths that are obstructed by terrain features will be omitted from the analysis. If you select NonObstructed, only the predicted data bins that are not obstructed by terrain features will be used for optimization. Select Both to include both Obstructed and Non-Obstructed (Recommended). Check Distances (Mi.) Select the minimum and maximum distances for the delta analysis. The analysis will only be conducted on data falling within the limits specified. The minimum check distance is a function of 175
Optimi Corp the Antenna height and the frequency you are using, the main idea here is to not optimize near field effects. The maximum distance that which you can be reasonably certain that the source of the strongest measured signal is from the target transmitter and not from a co-channel or adjacent channel. Histogram Deltas select the minimum and maximum values for the delta histogram. When the analysis is complete, the deltas (differences between the measured and predicted data) will be binned over the range specified. Any delta values greater than the maximum will be binned with the maximum value. Any value less than the minimum will be binned with the minimum value. This is done to minimize the effects of fast fading. Minimum Value Enter the minimum value to be considered for both the measured and predicted data. Values below the specified minimums will not be included in the analysis (Typical values are > -100 to -120 for both). Calculation Limits in this frame, you can control the portion of data that will be included in the calculation. The 360-degree option includes all measured data. The horizontal beam width includes data falling within the horizontal beam width of the antenna. Alternately, a specific angle can be selected by specifying the start and end degrees. Save Delta File As enter a full path and filename or browse to a location to save the delta analysis statistical output for further study. The Bands Tab Select the number of bands and the band limits. The values that will be shown on the resultant plot will represent the measured signal MINUS the predicted signal. Therefore, positive values show where the measured signals are STRONGER than the predicted values. Negative values show where the measured signal is WEAKER than the predicted signal. Depending on the optimization method or propagation model being used, different options will be given when the PMO analysis is finished. The following describes the Lee-based parameters available. When the analysis completes, if desired, name the analysis for future viewing. The analysis completion is shown in the Propagation Model Optimization Result dialog (below).
Current Values are the value for slope and intercept for this cell that were used for this analysis. Even though the analysis is performed at a transmitter level, the slope and intercept are changed for the cell as a whole.
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Optimi Corp Suggested Values reflect the amount of change that is suggested. When these values approach 0.10 or less, no significant gain will be noted by continued updating. Number of Points indicates the number of bins containing measured and predicted data included in the optimization. Standard Deviation represents the standard deviation of the measured minus the predicted data. Selecting Apply to all TXs will change the propagation files of the TX (or multiple TXs if you ran the BPMO) to the new suggested changes Selecting Apply to all Cells will change the propagation model for the entire cell (or cells if running BPMO) to the new suggested values. However if you use this option any TX that already has a custom propagation model assigned will NOT be changed and you will get the following message:
Click Cancel to end the entire operation, return the slope, and intercept within the cell to the values they contained before the analysis. When using the two or three parameter optimization methods, the various other parameters that can be suggested will be shown. To rerun with new parameters, simply click Update TX, or Cell then rerun the PMO by selecting Analysis > PMO.
11.8 Batched Propagation Model Optimization

This option allows you to run the Multiple PMO (delta) analysis on multiple transmitters. To run this analysis, the Transmitters must have a non-general, or non Hata Metric propagation model assigned to them and have at least one active measured data channel associated with it. Select Analysis > Propagation Model Optimization > Batched PMO and the following dialog box will open.
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The first selection you must make is the Batch Mode type to optimize the models assigned to the specific transmitters or if you want to use the same model for all transmitters in the analysis. This second option will allow you to create an averaged model using all the transmitters included. The Available Transmitter list box will show all the transmitters that meet the requirements described earlier (Non-General or Non-Hata Metric model and associated data). Single or multiple transmitters can be moved by highlighting them and clicking the button or by double clicking a transmitter(s). x-Wizard will run the analysis for all of the transmitters listed in the Selected Transmitter list box. Since x-Wizard can only display one result at a time, you must select which transmitter to display after the analysis completion. You can see the other results later pressing F7 and choosing other transmitters. By default, the first entry in the selected TX list box will be chosen. The Model and Use Algorithm controls are list boxes that map the model to the algorithm. By default, all models will be mapped to the Optimize 2 Parameters algorithm. Because of the possibility of finding different models used for different transmitters participating in the analysis and since the algorithm selection is not stored in the transmitter data structure, x-Wizard cannot determine which algorithm to use for that particular model. These list boxes allow mapping prior to running the analysis. The remaining parameters in the Batched PMO are the same as the PMO that we discussed earlier in this section. When all of parameters are set, click OK to start. The Batched PMO Analysis will run a measured-versus-predicted delta one-by-one for each transmitter and store the result in a single text file as specified in the file Combine All Analysis Results Into. This is similar to the delta file in the single PMO analysis, but this file contains all transmitters being optimized.
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Optimi Corp When finished, a screen displays the results of the analysis for all transmitters selected. This screen lists the propagation model used, the number of parameters chosen for that particular model, and the current and suggested values of these parameters including slope and intercept. The numbers of obstructed, nonobstructed, and total points used are listed along with the standard deviation for each...
Selecting Apply to All TX will change the transmitters current propagation model parameters to the suggested values. You can also choose Apply to all Cells which will change the propagation model to all cells that had participating transmitters in this BPMO. The exception is: if a TX already had a custom model assigned to it, that model will NOT be updated when you select Apply to all Cells. This screen may be saved by selecting Save to file. Click OK to return to the Batched PMO Results screen and then select Exit. The results of the batched PMO are now displayed in the Edit window.
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11.9 Measured Vs Predicted Analysis

This analysis allows engineers to directly compare measured and predicted coverage (using Analysis > Measured vs. Predicted Delta).This analysis mimics the dialog functionality from Analysis > Propagation Model Optimization > Batched PMO except Combine all results into file.
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This analysis creates a report file and corresponding report dialog containing all participating transmitters with the following data (note that abbreviations are used for the data names so that the UI is streamlined). In the Report dialog, include an Average row with a Use selection for each transmitter. The Average is computed using the values for each transmitter that have the Use option on. By default, all transmitters have this option on. This analysis also creates an Overall Statistics report in XLS format and displays once the analysis completes, which contains: Mean Error, Standard Deviation, and Number of Points for Obstructed, Non-Obstructed, and All (both obstructed and non-obstructed). Histogram Delta data covering all integer values between the minimum and maximum Default Histogram Delta settings in the analysis dialog. For each histogram delta value, the report lists Number of Points for Obstructed, Non-Obstructed, and All (both obstructed and non-obstructed). Clutter Statistics, listing each clutter type, the number of associated points, and the percent of overall area.
11.10 Model Averaging

If you used the same model for all sites in Batched Mode you can save an average model Selecting the View Average Spreadsheet will allow you to see the calculated averages of the different transmitters included in this analysis. 181
Optimi Corp After you run the analysis select the View average spreadsheet
Specify a new name for the average model and click the Save Avg Model button so you can then apply this averaged model to any other site. You can check and Un-check specific transmitters to remove them or add them to the average model before you save from the Use column. Doing this dynamically changes the average results. You can use the check and uncheck all buttons to select or unselect all transmitters. Selecting the (...) button under the Stats column will show you the specific stats for that transmitter along with the calculated statistical graphs in Excel. You can then use File > Save as in Excel to save the output files to any location you wish
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11.11 Evaluating the Results

Finding the Data the output data is located where you browsed to in the Save Delta File as for PMO or Combine all files into one for the BPMO. There is also a default path pointing to your Delta folder in the current project. To determine the appropriate project, select Help > Project Information from within x-Wizard. The files are sequentially named starting with 00000000.xld, and progressing using hexadecimal numbering, 00000001.xld, 00000002.xld...0000000f.xld, 00000010.xld and so on. Loading the data into Excel Start Excel (or another spreadsheet program) and open the .XLD data file from the location described above. In Excel, it will open as a tab-delimited ASCII file. Viewing the data The first section of the file contains the bin-by-bin comparison data. It is possible to sort this data in many ways to carefully evaluate results. The second section of the file contains the statistical information relating to the measured, predicted, and delta slope and intercept calculations. The third section of the file contains the histogram. This can be used to evaluate how well the data is fitted. The histogram is based on the delta information. Deriving generalized parameters By optimizing enough sites to be statistically valid, you can compile a list of the resultant slope, intercept, standard deviation, number of points, and area classification (urban, suburban, rural) for a number of measured vs. predicted analyses. It is then possible to average the slope and intercept for those cells within a particular classification. There is a very strong correlation between the number of points and the standard deviation. Typically, the confidence associated with the models optimization increases, for instance, when the error between measured and predicted signal strengths have a standard deviation of less than 8 dB and the number of comparison points approaches 650. Intuitively, a decrease in the error associated with the measured versus predicted analysis results in a reduced number of comparison points. Conversely, an increase in the standard deviation requires an increase in the number of comparison points to maintain the same level of confidence. Propagation parameters can be averaged based on morphology. For instance, sites without optimized propagation parameters that fall in similar morphological areas as sites with optimized propagation parameters can use average slope and intercept values derived for each of the area classifications. These default parameters can then be used to create propagation parameter files for each of the area classifications or the slope and intercept values can be entered at the cell level when the cell is initially evaluated.
11.12 Merging of Measured Data into Predictions

Optimized propagation models provide accurate prediction of the signal level. The main input to the propagation model optimization is measured data collected for transmitters to be optimized. The optimized model parameters obtained using the measured data are used to predict the signal level over the entire coverage area of the transmitters. Although the optimized model will have good agreement with measured data, the prediction in the bins where measured data exist will not be exactly the same as the collected data. Since measured data is the most accurate representation of the signal level for a given bin, the prediction should technically use the measured data for the bins that have measured data and predicted signal value for the bins where no drive test data is available. This feature addresses a method of merging the measured data over prediction. Using this option will replace the predicted signal levels at the bin with the scanned signal levels recorded by the drive test equipment. How to Use In order to use the measured data values instead of the predicted signals you must: Import and associate the measured data files to the correct TX's as shown above Enable the merge by checking the option in the TX data spreadsheet of the Site/BTS data.
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Optimi Corp After the association is set up from step one you need to tell wizard to use the measured data merge by selecting it in the cell data box for that TX as shown here:
Global Assignment A transmitter can have multiple measured data association so the option is a property of a transmitter, or you may have many TX's that require the merge option to be activated. For that reason the merge MD option has been added to the Query tool and the Import Export options. Query and Edit Since it is important to globally change the merge flag, x-Wizard includes the option to Merge in Query and Edit functionality.
The Transmitter Level field "Merge Measured Data" will select all TX's with or without (True or False) measured data merge flag. Multiple Edit dialog also includes the Merge Measured Data flag. This will update all the selected TX's to either use or do not use (True or False) the associated measured data as the prediction results for analysis grids.
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Export and Import The header tag (TX_MERGE_MEASURED_DATA) is used for the File > Import or File > Export Project Data at the .TX (transmitter data) level. The content of the data is expected to be 0 or 1. Non numeric value will be treated as 0 (false).
11.13 Remove Measured Data Association

For transmitter location or height changes, the link to associated measured data will be broken. In these cases, even path loss information is invalidated. This feature automatically notified the engineer that the transmitter change invalidates the currently associated measured data. The Window below is an example of the warning message displayed to the user when modifying cell data that will cause the measure data association to be removed.
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Clutter Adjustments
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12.1 What are Clutter Adjustments?

Up to this point, x-Wizard has based its predictions on terrain elevation data only. This provides a prediction on terrain relief and terrain based obstructions. These are not the only factors to consider for RF propagation. Land use types and land-based morphologies are important factors as well. Clutter adjustments are adjustments to the computed signal levels (attenuation or a gain) applied to each clutter type. Clutter types are land usage characteristics such as forest, urban and farmland. Clutter is also referred to as morphology or environmental attributes. Two files are used together to make clutter adjustments: The clutter type file is a geographic grid containing numbers that represent a particular type of clutter. This file is created using a process similar to that used to create the terrain file except that instead of elevation values, the bin data is an integer that corresponds to a particular land use type. For example, you can assign a type 1 to represent dense trees, type 2 to be farmland, and type 3 to be water. Over the geographic region of your project, the areas of dense trees would have type 1 assigned to the grid points (bins) much like the terrain bins have an elevation associated with them. x-Wizard stores the clutter type files as .clu and they are located in the clutter folder. The clutter adjustment file specifies whether the clutter is local or pass-through and the amount of adjustment to be made for any particular type of clutter specified in the clutter type file. Clutter adjustment files use the file extension .adj and are also stored in the clutter folder. Clutter files are similar to Terrain files in their format requirements. GIS companies can provide up to date clutter maps as well as the USGS. Once you have a clutter map in wizard format you can begin to use it in your analysis calculations by loading it into x-Wizard.
12.2 Loading the Clutter File

You can load the clutter file to make it available for use in x-Wizard. From within x-Wizard, select File > Load > Clutter Type File. Use the newly created file as the source file. For Load As, select an easily recognizable long name for this clutter file. For File Name, use the suggested name unless the source file is located in the clutter directory of the project where the file is to be loaded. In that circumstance, the file name must be changed.
12.3 Creating or Editing a Clutter Adjustment File

Adjusting propagation predictions based on land use types or clutter is a powerful and useful idea. The most important aspect to understand is the actual adjustments used. Because morphologies vary across the world, there is no set standard of adjustment values. The dense swamps do not give the same attenuation as the sequoia forests. The same is true for building types. Some areas are very old and are made of different material than those in newer urban areas. Therefore, the adjustments will be different. When purchasing clutter data, realize that the supplier may not supply adjustments. Clutter adjustment values must be determined using market specific information. Such information will be operating frequency, the type of land use, and the time if year if adjustments change based on seasonal effects. It may be necessary to perform drive tests in your various clutter types to analyze or optimize the clutter adjustments. To start the creation process or to edit an existing adjustment file, select Edit > Clutter Adjustment File or click on the Edit button next to the clutter file in the Edit > Project screen.
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To save a clutter adjustment file, the name must be specified, then click Save. The Description column is user defined and should be the description or land use type referred to by the ID. The ID column relates the clutter adjustment to the clutter type that appears in the clutter type file. (0-255) The Pass Over column gives you the option to Always include this clutter type in calculating the adjustment regardless of its height. This can also be thought of as an infinite height variable. This is the way you would want to model water. Obviously a large water body will not be higher than the surrounding terrain; however you want to make sure you take into consideration when your RF signal passes over water. To do so you can simply use the pass over feature and x-Wizard will calculate the effect of passing over water. The Local Adj. (dB) value represents the loss or gain that will be taken for this clutter type directly at the bin level. In this case, x-Wizard would calculate its predicted signal level and add this value to it, to give you the final predicted signal level. The next two columns allow you to model or fine tune you pass through clutter. As you move away from the transmitter and your signal is passing through various clutter types, x-Wizard needs to know how much to attenuate the signal. You can model this by using the PassThru Log Adj. (dB/dec) variable or by using the PassThru Linear Adj. (dB/ft or M) variable, or by using a combination of both. These are the values along with the local adjustment that the clutter optimization process tunes. The Clutter Height column defines the height of a particular clutter type. It is used to determine whether the calculation (signal) path to a particular path passes over or through this clutter type. If x-Wizard deems that a signal passes over a clutter type because of its height, x-Wizard will not include the clutter adjustment in the calculation. Remember if you want to have x-Wizard consider the clutter adjustment for a particular clutter type regardless of its height you MUST check the Pass Over option. Receiver Height - Changing the receiver height value will let x-Wizard predict the RSL (Received Signal Level) at a height other than ground level. A good example of this would be an elevated highway or bridges where you traffic is actually above ground level and you would rather predict to where the traffic is located. Other uses may be predicting on different floors of buildings. You may want to save different clutter adjustment files for each required height and assign them to the site(s) utilized for that specific area. 191
Optimi Corp The Traffic Weight field can also be utilized in the clutter adjustment file. This column defines a traffic weight to a given land use ID that will be used for traffic analysis. The higher the number the more traffic weighting (subscribers) will be applied to that clutter type. Required Analysis Value - This value is used for the Network Diagnostic analysis and for area statistics. The dB value place here will be the "target" that defines a good or acceptable signal level for the specific areas of clutter. Use Required Analysis Value - This column controls if you want to use the Required Analysis Value column. It simply tells x-Wizard to use or do not use the values for the Network Diagnostic analysis and area statistics. This way you can have data in the Required Analysis Value column but not necessarily use it until you are ready. *Remember to save the clutter adjustment file once all changes are made.
12.4 Selecting Clutter and Clutter Adjustment Files

To select the cutter type file and adjustment file for an entire project you must go into the Edit Project dialog under the Basic Project Data. If you want to assign clutter to the cell level, you must access the Additional Propagation Parameters option through the Cell Edit dialog.
In the Edit Project dialog, select the appropriate clutter type file, clutter adjustment file, and select OK. In the Cell Data dialog, check the Use Additional Box, and then click on the Additional Box from the additional Menu use the dropdown list, as shown:
> Clutter may also be assigned to the TX level by directly editing the TX and selecting the Clutter or Clutter adjustment files appropriate to that site. *Note if you assign clutter or adjustments to the TX level they will override the site or project level clutter data for analysis calculations.
12.5 Optimizing Clutter Values with Drive Test Data

As seen in the last section you can import your drive test data directly into x-Wizard. You can use this drive test data to automatically tune or optimize your clutter adjustment values. As you are out driving your network area, you are driving through different areas or types of clutter. x-Wizard does not know exactly how these clutter types change your RF signal. By allowing x-Wizard to calculate the effects of the different clutter types, you can obtain much more accurate predictions throughout your network. 192
Optimi Corp You must first import your measured data into x-Wizard as described in Section 12, Measured Data Integration. After the data is imported you must associate, or assign specific measured data files to their corresponding transmitters. This was also covered in Section 12 under sub-section 12.4-Measured Data Association. To begin the processes of Clutter Optimization select Analysis > Clutter Optimization from the Analysis dropdown menu. You may get a message about Non-Participating transmitters as shown:
Each transmitter must have a measured data association if you want to use it for optimizing the clutter adjustments. The Optimization interface is very similar to the PMO, and batched mode PMO that we looked at in the previous section.
Available TXs lists all available transmitters meeting the criteria for the analysis. User can select multiple transmitters from here. The Select button moves the selected transmitters from the Available TX(s) into the Selected TX(s) list box. Similarly, Deselect button moves selected transmitters from the Selected TX(s) into Available TX(s). Clutter Adjustment File displays the clutter used by the selected transmitter. If multiple transmitters are selected, x-Wizard detects the similarities between those clutters files, if they are all the same that one will be 193
Optimi Corp used, if not, the project level clutter adjustment will be used. If neither is found, the display <NO ADJUSTMENT FILE> will be presented. Note: At least one transmitter with a clutter adjustment is required to run the analysis. Optimize Parameters requires user to select at least one parameter to optimize. While we suggest optimizing all the parameters, any combination is permitted. Default Calculation Limits - The limit of the calculation area can be defined either by 360 degrees, just the horizontal beam width of the transmitter or by using a custom start and end angle. The from-to section is available only if you select one transmitter; they are disabled for multiple transmitters, to avoid errors. Default Histogram Delta Limits of the histogram in the output file, to exclude outlyers from skewing the data. Minimum value to use these set minimum signal level and the check distance options for the clutter optimization process. The Check Distance is a filter that allows elimination of the data that is very close to the site. Near the site, macroscopic propagation models with log d / d ref ) terms encounter a mathematical singularity. For that reason, the accuracy of the predictions within a couple of bins around the site is degraded. The Check distance filter allows for the removal of that data from the clutter optimization process. When the optimization is performed on a group of transmitters, the Check distance is applied to each of them.
Report File when the optimization completion, x-Wizard creates this file and places it where you direct it to using the browse option. If the report name is specified, this name will also be used as a default name for the Clutter Adjustment Save Dialog. The clutter adjustment file cannot have the character ! or |, this rule applies to the report file as well. If not specified, x-Wizard uses default name Clutter Optimization.xld and stores the file in the project path. If the Show Report File box is checked, x-Wizard will show the report file after the analysis completes. The Force Calculation option will force x-Wizard to rerun the initial propagation analysis (propmod) for the transmitters that are included for this optimization. This is an option because you might have been using unoptimized clutter previously and now you want x-Wizard to ignore those results and calculate with just the propagation model. Once completed the results are presented to you as a new clutter adjustment file. (Next page)
The result dialog lists the optimized clutter adjustment along with additional information such as Mean, Std Dev, and # Local Points. The Mean and Std Dev is calculated based on # Local Points. A Local Point (Li) occurs when the binned drive test data is mapped to a specific clutter type for that bin. The Local Adj. is calculated using line of site data values as well. You can name or rename this new adjustment file and click Save. Finally, you can manually either assign the new clutter adjustment file to the project or cell level as described previously. 194
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12.6 Editing the Clutter File

Once the clutter file has been selected, it is possible to edit that information directly in the map view. To edit: Select the clutter mouse mode and click on the Map View
A dialog box showing the clutter ID for each bin in that area will display. To change integer values (clutter type), enter the new value in the Edit Clutter section. Remember to save changes. *Note - Saving the Clutter file will cause the file timestamp to change and cause x-Wizard to re-calculate all the propmod files for the next analysis.
12.6.1 Clutter Grid Manipulation

x-Wizard lets you create clutter from picture files, and has the ability to merge grids. This means that you can edit large portions of an existing clutter file by drawing the edits, generating a clutter file from the drawing and then merging the edits to the original file. To start this process first make sure both of the clutter grids that you are going to be using are not in use by xWizard. Windows will have a file sharing issue if this is the case. Next choose Tools > Combine Clutter Grids. In the example dialog below, the Clutter Grid 2 new clutter area will over write the values found in Clutter Grid 1 Chicago 12 Class Clutter to form a new clutter file called combined.
Note: The second grid listed over writes the values in the first grid listed.
12.7 Displaying the Clutter File

Clutter is displayed on screen by checking the Clutter option under the Grids (Raster Data) tree in the Map Option Tab or by using the Alt +F9 hotkey.
You do not need to display clutter for it to be considered during analysis. Simply assign it at the project or the cell level. The color of the displayed clutter is set in the edit clutter adjustment file. The different styles for displaying clutter are available in the Clutter Display Options dialog that is accessible by doing a right click on 195
Optimi Corp the Clutter option in the Map Options Tab and selecting the Display Options. See Section 10 x-Wizard Visual Controls, for more information.
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13
13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6 13.7 13.8 13.9
Channel Planning
CHANNEL PLANNING IN X-WIZARD............................................. ERROR: REFERENCE SOURCE NOT FOUND CHANNEL PLANNING TERMINOLOGY.......................................... ERROR: REFERENCE SOURCE NOT FOUND ASSIGNING FREQUENCY TABLES............................................... ERROR: REFERENCE SOURCE NOT FOUND EDITING FREQUENCY TABLES................................................... ERROR: REFERENCE SOURCE NOT FOUND CHANNEL PLAN TEMPLATES..................................................... ERROR: REFERENCE SOURCE NOT FOUND ASSIGNING A CHANNEL TEMPLATE............................................ ERROR: REFERENCE SOURCE NOT FOUND SELECTING A CHANNEL PLAN................................................... ERROR: REFERENCE SOURCE NOT FOUND HOW TO ASSIGN CHANNELS...................................................... ERROR: REFERENCE SOURCE NOT FOUND SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR IDEN PROJECTS IDEN CHANNEL TEMPLATESERROR: REFERENCE SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR GSM TECHNOLOGY.................ERROR: REFERENCE SOURCE NOT FOUND PN AND SCRAMBLE CODE PLANS FOR CDMA TECHNOLOGIES. .ERROR: REFERENCE SOURCE NOT FOUND DISPLAYING CHANNELS AND CHANNEL OPTIONS....................... ERROR: REFERENCE SOURCE NOT FOUND DISPLAYING CHANNELS BY CHANNEL OR TRANSMITTER.............ERROR: REFERENCE SOURCE NOT FOUND CHANNEL PLAN UTILITIES......................................................... ERROR: REFERENCE SOURCE NOT FOUND IMPORTING CHANNELS.............................................................. ERROR: REFERENCE SOURCE NOT FOUND INTERACTIVE CHANNEL PLANNING............................................ ERROR: REFERENCE SOURCE NOT FOUND
SOURCE NOT FOUND
13.10 13.11 13.12 13.13 13.14 13.15 13.16
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13.1 Channel Planning in x-Wizard

A channel plan is a plan for how to distribute your channels transmitter by transmitter within a given frequency spectrum. x-Wizard allows multiple channel plans to be associated with a x-Wizard project. Each user may have different versions of channel plans within the same project. The channels that are available for assignment are based on the template. Channel plans are stored separately from channel plan templates; a channel plan may be loaded with different templates.
13.2 Channel Planning Terminology

Channel Plan consists of the assignment of channels per each transmitter. Channels are assigned at the radio level. Channel plans are Project specific files held in the Chanplan folder of your Project directory and have the file extension .pln. You may have many channel plans for a single project representing different whatif situations. They can contain multiple technologies as along as all channels are represented in a frequency table. Frequency Table - Maps how and what frequencies are assigned to channels. A frequency table is a list of the channel numbers, the center frequency for that channel (in MHz) and the channel width. Frequency Tables are Common data held in the common directory where you installed x-Wizard or where youre current Common Path is located. They are simple text files with an extension of .ftf Channel Plan Template Defines grouping and arrangement of the available channels. The template organizes the channels into groups, sets, subsets, and sub-channels. The template also controls the way that the channels are displayed for assignment. The channel plan template is an optional file that can be used to display channels on screen and is required if you are going to use the Show Conflicts utility described in the Interactive channel planning section below. Radio defines specific channel assignments per transmitter in x-Wizard one channel equals one radio. You can set radio level parameters such as BCCH or TCH, VVV, Forbidden etc. Each Radio will have a different set of parameters based on its technology. Radios are also used to model site radio hardware capacity through the Load # of Radios utility.
13.3 Assigning Frequency Tables

For x-Wizard to know which channels (frequencies) to assign to a given channel you must assign a frequency table and template. You can assign frequency tables at: The Project level - This is the default level, you can assign the tables in the "Frequency Plan" section of the Edit Project screen, or by right clicking on the project level in the WEX and selecting "Edit".
The System level - This level allows you to assign particular frequency tables to a system. If you have more than one system in your project you can assign different frequency tables to them. If you only change the frequency table for one system the other systems will use the default (Project level) table. You can use the Edit > System drop down menu or right click on a system in the WEX and choose "Edit" to assign the frequency tables to the system. 198
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The Switch level - The switch level assignment is the closest one to the transmitters and will be the one used if it is selected. it overrides both the system and project level assignments. You can use the Edit > Switch drop down menu or right click on a switch in the WEX and choose "Edit" to assign the frequency tables to the switch.
NOTE: Assigning frequency tables at different levels applies to all the transmitters / radios that are children of that entity. So as an example; a site under a switch which is a child of a system and you assign a frequency table to both the switch and the system the radios in that site will use the switch's frequency table for its broadcast frequency.
13.3.1 Channels and Tables:

When you select a particular channel to assign to a radio (in the cell edit or edit channels screens) that channel must exist in the table you have assigned to the site or you will get the following error:
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13.4 Editing Frequency Tables

You can edit the frequency table by selecting Tools > Edit Frequency Table from the x-Wizard drop down menu. To Edit a Table: Select the Technology you want and choose the table from the Frequency Table drop down list. If you would like to start creating your own table you must first choose the technology and then type in a new name for the table and select Save.
You will notice as you change the parameters of the table the text will change to red indicating where changes were made. You can choose the Advanced option to add or remove entire lists of frequency / channels to your table. The Build Frequency Table dialog is launched when you choose advanced it is used to create or modify frequency groups to be assigned to projects, systems, or switches.
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The channel list parameters are entered at the top of the dialog. The Add Band button will add that sequence to the lower window and clear the list parameters. You can then create the next sequence of channels. To edit an existing table, simply enter the values manually into the table. Changes to the values in the table are highlighted in red while editing. You can also delete entries to eliminate channel/frequencies from the table. This is a good method for making small changes to an existing table. No changes are made to the table until you select Add these bands to the table. At that point the channels are appended to the original table UNLESS the Overwrite Current Table is checked. This checkbox is used to replace the existing table with the new values. When you are finished making changes select Save then Done to apply your new frequency table. *Notes If you created a new table you will have to assign that table to the Project, System, or Switch that you want to use your new table. Channel numbers must be unique, no duplicates.
13.4.1 The File Location and Format

Frequency tables are stored in the ...\wizard\common\ directory and are in a folder called "Frequency Table". They are further divided into each technology that x-Wizard can support. The files themselves are saved with the extension FTF. You can open or edit these files with notepad or thought the edit frequency table tool in xWizard. WARNING: unless you are familiar with these files, it is suggested that you edit them from x-Wizard. The table is made up of four parts: 1. 2. 3. 4. The Header The technology The channel width The frequency to channel number mapping
An Example: (Default AMPS-TDMA 850MHz.ftf)
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13.5 Channel Plan Templates

A Channel Template is a map of all the channels or frequencies available to you for your spectrum. A Channel Plan Template defines how the channels are laid out into a channel plan. The template is used to define the display that the user will see when assigning or viewing the current assignment of channels. The Channel Plan Template is an ASCII file stored in the \wizard\common\template directory. The Channel Plan Template allows you to define levels of channel plan resolution; Groups, Sets, Subset, Channels You can specify the number of groups in the channel plan, the number of sets in a group, the number of subsets in a set, the number of channels in a subset. You can then define the hierarchical assignment of, channels to subsets, subsets to sets, and sets to groups. The Channel Template Editor can be used to add or modify an existing channel template. To activate the Channel Template Editor, go to Tools > Channel Template Editor
The channel template editor is an Excel Macro that will allow you to create your own templates from existing templates or create templates from Excel spreadsheets. Some things to keep in mind when using the Channel Template Editor: 202 When creating new templates the size of the Template is determined by the extent of the Group names and Subset names. Once a "blank" cell is located in the Group names (in row 6) and subset names (in column 3) the program will not look any further.
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All data past the first "blank" cell point will be ignored. If this macro is started from another directory other than '\Common\Template' folder (or from with in xWizard) the 'Save to x-Wizard' option will be disabled. If you perform a 'Save as' you will be require to load the Template in x-Wizard in order to use in x-Wizard by going to File > Load > Channel Template and point to the created *.tpl file in x-Wizard.
13.5.1 Guidelines on How to Create a Template:

If control channels are required, click the "Make CTRL CHN row" button for as many rows as desired. Fill in your "Group" names (row 6) and "Set" names (row 7) across the designated rows. Fill in your "Subset" names (Column 3) Populate channels using only numeric values. Once complete click either 'Save to x-Wizard' button or the 'Save as' button. *Notes: Do not to use duplicate channel numbers. Only place numerical values in the channel number areas. Macro currently supports 253 columns wide by 65,536 rows deep (Microsoft Excel limitation).
13.6 Assigning a Channel Template

x-Wizard allows for multiple channel templates to be used in the same project at the same time. This capability is what allows for multi-band projects to be utilized. Assigning the channel template is done in the same way you assign the frequency tables, with the exception of the radio level. To assign a channel template you must decide what level to use; the levels are the same as the frequency table settings; Project, System, Switchand radio (for template only) Template Assignment at the Radio Level the radio properties dialog box has a dropdown field to select a template for each transmitter in a site. In the case where you may have transmitters at a site that use different bands or channels you can set a specific template. Once selected, you can then use the template view to select specific channels by the template.
13.7 Selecting a Channel Plan

Under the Channels drop down menu, choose Select Channel Plan The following screen will be presented:
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If the Display option is selected, the channel plan is displayed on the geographic display after loading. If not selected, the channel plan is not displayed on the geographic display. The Read Only selection will protect the selected channel plan from being written toor at least will warn you that it was opened as read only before you can write to it. Opening a channel plan Select the desired channel plan or enter a new plan name to create a new channel plan before channel plan editing is possible.
13.8 How to assign channels

There are various ways that channels can be assigned to a transmitter. There are many ways to access the channel plan or template display. The channel plan or template display shows current assignments and allows changes to be made. The Cell Edit Screen In the Cell Data dialog, if you choose the Radio section and select Edit Channels, xWizard will present a list of the channels assigned to each transmitter as well as all channels available in the template.
The Edit Channels Menu Selecting Edit > Channels results in the following dialog box:
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To edit the channels for any of the transmitters listed, select the rainbow icon The channel edit dialog will appear.
under the column labeled C.
The Spectrum edit tool bar to select a transmitter from the geographic display to assign channels, use the Channel Edit mode. Select the desired transmitter by placing the cursor on the transmitter symbol and clicking. To change to channel edit mode, click on the tool bar. Select the appropriate transmitter with the mouse. Should you select multiple transmitters; a dialog box in the format of the following dialog will be presented.
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Optimi Corp Select the desired transmitter from the list and then OK. The Wireless Explorer to assign channels using the Wireless Explorer, a channel plan must be loaded. In the Wireless Explorer, show the transmitter to be assigned to the channels by expanding the display of the appropriate cell all the way to that transmitter. To do this, click + where appropriate for System, MSC, Switch, Cell, and Sector. See the dialog below.
Select the desired transmitter with the left-mouse button. Channels from the context-sensitive menu that appears
Right-click on the transmitter and select Edit
Assigning Channels Channels are assigned in two possible ways: 1. From the Radio Properties dialog 2. From the Template view Assigning Channels from the Radio View to assign a channel from the radio view select the Edit channels option in any of the above mentioned ways and you should automatically find yourself in the Radio Properties dialog box as shown:
You can click on the Add Radio button to add a new channel \ radio. A few things to keep in mind: 206 You can only assign a channel that exists in the give frequency table. The channel does not have to exist in a template to be assigned.
Optimi Corp You can manually enter in the channel number and other technology specific parameters in the Radio Parameters box without going to the template view. To change technologies use the Technology drop down menu at the top of the Radio Parameters dialog box
To assign channels using the Template View - You can also assign channels in your channel plan by going into the Template view. To do this you must first have a template assigned to the TX you are currently editing. As mentioned above you assign templates at the Project, System, or Switch level. The TX you are editing will use the Template assigned to is nearest parent. Select the Edit channels option in any of the above mentioned ways, and click on the Template View option in the Radio Parameters dialog box. This will take you to the edit channels template view window.
Assigning AMPS Channels to enter AMPS channels, select AMPS on the upper left-hand side of the channel plan template. Channels are assigned individually by clicking the channel. To assign a channel with a particular SAT or DCC value, first select the appropriate SAT or DCC, then select the appropriate voice or control channel. Channels can also be assigned one subset at a time by clicking in the appropriate subset designator in the left column followed by a channel in that subset. All channels in a set can be assigned by clicking on the set designator. All channels in a group can be assigned by clicking on a group designator. Channels can also be assigned by dragging across the desired channels, both horizontally and vertically. AMPS channels are displayed in regular font style. If some channels in the subset, set or group have already been assigned, the remainder of the channels will be added when the user assigns channels in the subset, set or group assignment technique. If ALL channels in the selected assignment group have been assigned, they will all be removed. Assigning TDMA Channels to enter TDMA channels, select TDMA on the upper left-hand side of the channel plan template. TDMA channels are assigned individually by clicking the channel. To assign a channel with a particular configuration or DVCC value, first select the appropriate channel configuration or DVCC, and then select the channel. All selecting mechanisms for selecting AMPS channels apply for TDMA channels. TDMA Channels are displayed in bold italics. 207
Optimi Corp Assigning CDPD Channels to enter CDPD channels, select CDPD. CDPD channels are assigned individually by clicking the channel itself. To assign a channel with a particular configuration or CGCC value, first select the appropriate channel configuration or CGCC, and then select the channel. The same method for assigning AMPS or TDMA channels applies to assigning CDPD channels. Assigning CDMA Channels to assign CDMA channels, in the Cell Edit dialog first apply the CDMA technology to a transmitter. Next, enter the Radio View add a radio and select the CDMA carrier to be assigned to this transmitter by adding a radio and choosing the carrier from the drop-down list. To adjust the frequency mappings, select the channels drop-down menu and select Assign Frequency Mappings. From there, adjust the center frequency of the CDMA carriers. For more information, read the x-Wizard Users Guide or attend a x-Wizard CDMA class. Assigning Guard Band Channels Guard Band channels may be assigned by selecting the Guard Band option and guard band channels. Illegal channels can be assigned as guard bands if desired.
13.9 Special Considerations for iDEN Projects iDEN Channel Templates

iDEN projects and especially the channeling assignments of iDEN are handled a bit differently in x-Wizard than the other technologies. A default iDEN template, and frequency tables are supplied by x-Wizard. Adding iDEN channelsto add iDEN channels you must first choose the channel designation. Your choices are as follows: Voice Primary Control Secondary Control Planned Forbidden (Incumbent) To add a channel from the template view simply select from the group above and then use the mouse to click on the channel(s) or sets you wish to add. The 16 digital color codes for iDEN and the 6 PCCH can also be applied in the channel plan by selecting the 0 15, 0 - 5 drop down list in the upper right hand corner of the channel template view.
iDEN channels / Radios can also be assigned in the Radio Properties dialog rather than in the Template view. To do this simply edit channels in any of the ways we looked at earlier and click the Add radio option.
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For the Radio Properties Dialog box you must manually enter in the Channel number, Radio Type, Color Code, and PCCH. x-Wizard will determine the Frequency, Carrier # (Hex and Dec) based on the frequency table you have assigned to this transmitter. You can view iDEN channel display options in three different formats. From the View dropdown menu select Channel Options alternatively you can use the shortcut key Ctrl+H. This will bring you to the Channel Options window, select iDEN and set the View as option to whatever you prefer to see.
Choose the format that you would like to see and click OK to apply. If you then go back and look at any of the iDEN templates they should be in the format that you have selected. Hiding Adjacencies in iDEN Projects When using an iDEN project you have the ability to turn off the adjacent channel indicators so you only see the co-channel issues. This is done in the Channel Options (Ctrl+H) screen as mentioned above. To turn off the adjacent channel display make Hide Adjacent Channels = Yes
13.10 Special Considerations for GSM Technology

When channel planning for GSM technology you can define various radio level assignments
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Each GSM transmitter can support multiple radios of different Channel Types. Checkboxes control if a GSM radio uses Frequency Hopping (FG) or GPRS.
13.11 PN and Scramble Code Plans for CDMA Technologies

It is also worth noting here that CDMA type technologies, UMTS-FDD, IS-95, CDMA2000, 1X-EVDO, all store their channels within the x-Wizard Project Database. They do not have a separate channel plan as do other technologies.
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13.12 Displaying Channels and Channel Options

Channel Resolution and Channels to Display can be displayed by selecting the Property Option available in the Map Options Tab > Site Display > Channels Options, and performing a right mouse. You can also get to the channel control options by using the shortcut keys Ctrl + H.
The Channel Display Options changes the display of the channels on the map view and controls the way xWizard runs its interference analysis. The display is broken down into three sections. 1. Technology Selection 2. Values 3. Properties The Technology selection box: In this area you choose which technologies are being displayed in the map view. The check box tells x-Wizard to include that specific technology in the map view. Highlighting the technology will change the properties/values section so you can change the parameters for that technology.
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The Properties selection
Once you choose the technology by, highlighting the technology, you can change the parameters and viewing order by changing the following parameters. Display Filters Show - Display the type of radio technologies you wish to use. You may select any or all of the technologies or none at all. Ordering - Determines which radio technology is displayed first. The selected technology appears first in the display, unless you select All Combined, which presents the channels in channel order. Display Type Grouping - Selects the channel plan display resolution. Channels on screen are displayed at this grouping. Note: the determination of Co-channel and adjacent channel sites is made at the level specified here. For example, if you select Group, sites which have channels selected from the same group are considered to be Co-channel. Set and Count Format is an attempt to abbreviate the text required to describe the displayed channels. The first character of the code will be one of the following: U non-expanded channels L upper non-expanded channel of the set) is assigned and the channels are contiguous 212
Optimi Corp Rlower non-expanded channels of the set is assigned and channels are contiguous If only expanded channels are assigned, this character is blank. The second character in the code represents the total number of channels within that set. Finally, if any expanded channels are assigned, the last character is X.
Selecting the voice and control channel configuration to display If you are displaying the control channel, additional options are provided. To display the control channel at the current Grouping level, select At Specified Grouping. However, if you always want to display the control channel as a channel, select As Channel. Color - Display colors of the channels. Colors are set by the type of channel and the codes used to further specify the channel uses. Selecting White displays all channels as white text. Selecting By Attribute displays the channels using the same colors as the Channel Plan dialog box. Selecting By Group assigns a unique color to each group, and uses that color for its member channels. Use Channel Display Options These options affect interference analysis calculations. The Restrict Interference Analysis and Co-channel Mode Display with Channel Display Options check box applies the settings in this dialog box to the determination of Co-channel and adjacent channel sites when performing the Interference analysis. For example, if the Voice box is not selected, voice channels are not considered active when running the interference analysis. Single Cell/Different Sector: Common Control Channels Interfere causes the program to designate as Co-channel any transmitters at a single cell which share a control channel. If you are using a single control channel at a sectored site that is broadcasting the same signal, you don't want to select this box. Common Voice Channels Interfere causes the program to designate as Co-channel any transmitters at a single cell which share a voice channel. Under normal circumstances this box should be selected; special situations may require its use.
USE THE Single Cell / Different sector CAREFULLY! If you inadvertently or unintentionally assign the same control or voice channels on separate transmitters of the same cell, they will not show interference into each other during an interference analysis. If you intend to utilize this function, we suggest that you also perform an interference analysis with both boxes selected so that you can verify interference results in unexpected areas from common channel assignments.
13.13 Displaying Channels by Channel or Transmitter

The Channel Plan the entire channel plan is displayed when a channel plan is selected. Display of the channel plan is enabled or disabled under Map Options Tab > Site Display > Channels option. If selected, the channel plan is displayed at the selected channel plan resolution. If cleared, the channel plan is NOT displayed although it may be loaded into memory. As previously stated, the display of the channel plan can also be controlled by selecting or clearing Display in the Channel Plan and Template dialog. By Transmitter there are two ways to show which transmitters have co-channel or adjacent channel assignments with a target transmitter. The first way is to select View > Entity Relationship. *Note - these 213
Optimi Corp options will be unavailable until you apply a template to the project that matches the channel plan that you have loaded
Next, select Color by NNN Relative to Transmitter. (The NNN will be replaced by the appropriate channel display resolution in the Channel Display dialog. In the sample dialog shown above, the channel display resolution is set at channel level.) Select the appropriate transmitter in the drop-down list immediately below the Color by NNN Relative to Transmitter. Transmitter symbols on screen will be colored by their relationship to the source transmitter specified above. The color schemes are user definable and can be controlled by selecting Format > Color Schemes and then channel codes. The color scheme defined below represents the default colors for the channel codes category: Has Channel =Magenta Has Adjacent Channel =Green Different Channel Resolutions the display is affected by the channel display resolution. If the channel display resolution is set at any resolution higher than channel and a transmitter contains at least one channel in the resolution specified which is also contained in the source transmitter, the two are deemed co-channel. An example of this is when the channel display resolution is at the Set resolution and the source transmitter contains one channel in the set. If another transmitter contains any channel in that set (even if it is not the same channel as the source transmitter), the two will be deemed co-channel. For transmitters that have multiple SATs assigned, the worst-case scenario is always shown. The other way to select a source transmitter is to select co-channel mode on the toolbar . This works by reading the channel plan and determining the co-channel and adjacent channels for the selected transmitter. This will produce the following display parameters: Source Transmitter Co-channel, Same Code Co-channel, Different Code Adjacent channel, Same Code Adjacent channel, Different Code Others Cyan Red Magenta Yellow Green Grey (No Fill)
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13.14 Channel Plan Utilities

Saving the Channel Plan the channel plan must be saved to store changes regardless of the type of project. Select Channels > Save Channel Plan. To save the changes to the channel plan under a different name or with a different status, select Channels > Save Channel Plan As You may either save as a different name or select a different status. If the channel plan has not been saved before you close the project or exit x-Wizard, you will be prompted to save changes to the channel plan. Closing the Channel Plan to close the channel plan without saving, select Channels > Close Channel Plan. If changes have been made to the channel plan and they have not yet been saved, x-Wizard will prompt changes to be saved. Merge Channel Plans x-Wizard allows channel assignments to be merged from one channel plan to another with this utility. This can be very helpful when two or more people are developing channel assignments for the same project. The Merge Channel Plan function allows you to merge the channels of a saved channel plan into the channels currently loaded. In order to use this option, a channel plan must be loaded. This option is not available until that time.
Highlight the channel plan to be merged with the open channel plan. The selection is the source channel plan. The selected channel plan must be compatible with the channel plan template of the currently loaded channel plan. The selected channel plan will appear in the gray box along with the status and creator. A transmitter may have only one AMPS Setup Channel. Therefore, even if this box is NOT selected, if the Source channel plan contains an AMPS setup channel, any currently loaded AMPS setup channels will be removed. If the option to Clear existing channels from transmitters if merged plan has channels for that transmitter is selected and the channels have been assigned to a transmitter in the source channel plan, channels in the destination channel plan for that transmitter will be cleared prior to loading the new channels into that transmitter. If this box is not selected, the new channels will be added to the existing channels. If you only want the currently active transmitters in your project to have channels merged to them, select Merge channels for active transmitters only. Compare Channel Plans to see how two channel plans differ from one another or to view the assignments contained by a channel plan, use the compare channel plans utility. This utility will report how any other channel plan for this project differs from the one loaded. This can be useful when two or more users work with channels plans.
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From the list of available plans, select a channel plan to be compared with the currently loaded channel plan. The selected channel plan will appear in the gray box along with the status and creator. The currently loaded channel plan may be selected. If the currently loaded channel plan is selected, the channels in memory will be compared to the channels in the file. This allows you to determine what changes that have been made to the channel plan but not yet saved. The Results Location section of the dialog box displays two options. Select Send To Printer for a hard copy of the discrepancies. Select Write To Output File to save the report as a text file. If the Write To Output File option is selected, a Save As dialog box will prompt for the name and location of the output file. Load # of Radios Use this utility to synchronize the # of Radios field in the cell edit screen with the number of channels assigned to that transmitter based on the channel plan. After selecting this utility, x-Wizard provides a warning that using the #of Radios field to determine under or over utilization of radios by the color will cause that information to be lost. You can view the radio allocations of you sites based on the channel plan and the # of Radios utility. Select View > Entity Relationship and choose the Color by Channel Utilization option. Your map view will now display the sectors in three different ways: Blue = Underutilization of your radios, you have more radios at the site than channels assigned in the channel plan Red = Over utilization of your radios, you do not have enough radios at that site to support the number of channels in the channel plan Yellow (fill) = Perfect utilization. Grey = no radios have been assigned
Printing the Channel Plan there are two options to print the channel plan. The most commonly used option is to create a cell list file with the channel plan loaded. The channels will be included in the cell list file that can be formatted into various formats. Select File > Export > Cell list File. The channel plan can also be printed by selecting Channels > Print Channel Plan. The entire channel plan will be printed and sorted by either transmitters or channels as determined by the user. This will result in the following dialog box:
13.15 Importing channels

x-Wizard gives you the capability to import channel plan information from Ericsson, Hughes, Lucent, Motorola and Nortel switch data. x-Wizard also has a proprietary import export format for channels plans. x-Wizard associates the channels in the switch data (output) file with the x-Wizard transmitters. x-Wizard matches the 216
Optimi Corp identifying fields in the switch data file with the Sector ID in Switch field in the TX/RX Spreadsheet section of the Cell Edit dialog. Extracting the Switch Data Running reports against the individual switches creates the channel plan data. These reports are created as follows. Ericsson Running an MTCLP report creates the data from the Ericsson switch. The Sector ID in Switch field in the x-Wizard cell will be matched to the Cell field in the MTCLP report. Hughes The Hughes data is extracted in the Cell Channel Usage report format. The Sector ID in Switch field in the x-Wizard cell will be matched to the Cell ID field in the Cell Channel Usage report. Lucent The Lucent data is extracted by running an SQL query against the AutoPace database. There are five fields in the comma-delimited query file which will be matched against colon-delimited fields in the Sector ID in Switch fields: SID, MSC, Cell, Transmitting Antenna, and Server Group. Nortel There are three Nortel switch channels that x-Wizard recognizes; AMPS, TDMA, and CDPD. CDMA channels cannot be imported. In addition to the dedicated single-mode AMPS, TDMA, CDPD channels, the NORTEL switch allows dual mode AMPS/TDMA and AMPS/CDPD channels. x-Wizard does not support dual mode channels; therefore, the user must select whether the AMPS/TDMA channels will be AMPS or TDMA and whether the AMPS/CDPD channels will be AMPS or CDPD. For specific instructions for extracting switch data from NORTEL, please contact x-Wizard technical support. Motorola x-Wizard will import channels from the Motorola EMX 2500. You will have to point to your CHANPARM, CHANSAT, and DLPARM files that you have taken from the switch software. x-Wizard Format x-Wizard has an export channel plan format that can be re-imported into a project. To export a channel plan select File > Export > Channel Plan. This file can be taken into any data processing program (Excel, WordPad, and MapInfo). Edit the channels or radios within this file and bring them back into a project by saving changes then select File > Import > Channel Plan. Choose the WXP file just saved to import changes. Importing the Switch Channels to import channels, you must have a channel plan and template loaded. The channels are imported into the currently loaded channel plan. Channels are imported by issuing the File > Import > Channel Plan command. If no channel plan is loaded, you will be prompted to load one. If a channel plan is already loaded, the following message appears:
This message warns that the channels will be imported into the currently loaded channel plan. You may use Save As to save the imported channels as a different channel plan. After clicking Yes, the following Import Channels from Switch Data dialog will appear:
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Select the appropriate switch, switch software release, and the appropriate file(s) that contain the switch channel data. This can be done by typing the complete path and filename or by browsing to the file location. Indicate to x-Wizard what Technology your channels are that you are importing in the Technology to Import field. If they are mixed technologies choose the mixed option. The For Repeated Sector IDs in Switch frame offers you the capability to control channel assignments when there is more than one Sector ID in Switch field within x-Wizard of the same ID. This can happen purposefully or accidentally often when you make What If copies of a site the Sector ID in switch is copied as well. The four options are described below: Assign Channels to All Transmitters All transmitters with a Sector ID in Switch field that matches the identifying field(s) in the switch data file will be assigned the channels, regardless of cell name, status, or creator. Assign Channels to Transmitters with Same Name, but Different Status/Creator This option will assign the channels to all x-Wizard transmitters with the matching Sector ID in Switch field provided that the cell name is the same for all x-Wizard transmitters with the matching Sector ID in Switch. The cell status or creator may be different. If the unique name of the cells that contain transmitters with matching Sector ID in Switch data is different, the channels will NOT be assigned to any transmitter. Manually Assign Channels this option prompts for a manual match of x-Wizard transmitters to switch data. Do Not Assign Channels to Any Transmitter No transmitters will be assigned the channels if this option is selected. There are three options for all imported channels as follows: Clear Channels of All Active Cells before Assignment when this option is selected, the channels in all active transmitters are deleted prior to loading the channel plan. Use TX S/V to Determine AMPS Setup Assignment this option controls the assignment of AMPS Setup channels. If selected, AMPS Setup Channels will only be assigned to transmitters with the S designator. To select an entity, click on it with the mouse. To select multiple entities, hold the Ctrl and Shift keys while clicking with the mouse. Generate Report if this option is selected, a report of the importation is generated. When you select Generate Report, the following dialog appears 218
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A utility file called CHIMP.TXT is created in the user folder of the user currently logged into the project when performing the switch import. This file provides useful information such as the transmitters that were NOT assigned channels. Interactive Channel Planning
13.16 Interactive Channel Planning

x-Wizard is designed to help determine which channels are best for particular transmitters based on information supplied. With the help of the Permissions Matrix, x-Wizard can suggest possible channels, show conflicts, or show that problems exist. The entries in x-Wizard for channel spacing, minimum serving signal level, permission percentage and bias will be used to help suggest the best possible channel(s) to assign a transmitter What is a permission matrix? - A permission matrix is an X, Y matrix that contains interference relationship values for every active sector into every other active sector. Along the X-axis of the permission matrix, every active transmitter is listed. Active transmitters are also listed along the Y -axis of the permission matrix. The value reflected for every entry in the permission matrix represents the interference relationship value (in dB) between the two transmitters listed in the X and Y axes which intersect at that entry point. The values in the first row and first column represent the internal ID numbers that are used to associate transmitters to their data. These numbers should be thought of as transmitter IDs. For example: x 6 19 27 28 6 19 27 28 x 11 -3 -6 30 x 25 35 2 9 x 2 -6 17 -8 x
How are the values in a permission matrix derived? - The permission matrix entries represent the Carrier to Interference (C/I) relationship between the two transmitting sectors that meet at that point on the matrix. The value is determined by using the data items minimum serving signal, percentile, and bias accessed in the Cell Edit screen under Transmitters. Execute this action by selecting Thresholds.
The service area of each transmitter is determined first and is calculated by creating a strongest server (or using any of the calculation methods) of all active transmitters in the system. The service area of each transmitter is limited by its Minimum Serving Signal value if that level is reached in any bin where that transmitter is the strongest server. A bin is considered to be served by a transmitter if the signal level in that Essentials of x-Wizard 219
Optimi Corp bin meets Minimum Serving Signal level and is within bias dB of the second strongest serving signal. Next, each transmitter is compared to every other active transmitter one transmitter at a time. For every bin in which the source transmitter is considered a server, the relationship of the source transmitter to the interfering transmitter is calculated using a CDF and the Percentile entered above. This results in a table of C/I values for every bin in the source transmitter. C/I values are rank ordered in this table. In order to determine the value that is populated in the permission matrix, the value (percentile value in the rank) ordered table is used. Example:
Value in Permat
13.16.1
Probability of Interference in Co-Channel and Adjacent Channel
The purpose of creating a Permissions or Interference matrix is to have x-Wizard determine which areas in your network would have the worst interference if they used the same frequency or an adjacent frequency. XWizard can determine coverage area and signal strength from its prediction models. However, it is up to you to let x-Wizard know how much interference takes place at a specific C/I ratio, this is known as the probability of interference mapping. X-Wizard has two simple text files that you can use, both are stored in the xWizard\COMMON folder, they are COCHANF.DAT and ADJCHANF.DAT. Looking at these files with notepad or some text editor you will see that they are simple mapping files of probability to C/I levels. You can change these mappings if you wish. Below is a chart of the standard COCHANF.DAT file in x-Wizard.
Probability of Interference 1.1 1 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 -0.1
1 4 -5 -2 7 10 13 16 19
Probability
C/I
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13.16.2
Creating the Various Matrices in x-Wizard
To create any of the x-Wizard matrices you must first activate the desired transmitters and fill in appropriate values for Minimum Serving Signal and Percentile each transmitter in the Cell Data dialog. The next step is to run the Create Permission Matrix analysis under the Analysis menu. The following dialog box will display:
Specify a name for the output permission matrix; the Reference Grid is no longer used by the permat generation. Transmitters to Include: Select the appropriate technology for the project by placing a check mark in the corresponding Use box for that technology. Click in the Include column to whether to use All, Setup, or Voice. The Setup and Voice options are keying of what has been specified in the S and V checkboxes in the Cell data dialog. *Important Point: Multiple technologies should NOT be selected when opting to run Traffic or Area Interfered. These matrices reference the cochanf.dat and adjchanf.dat files which are technology specific. Select multiple technologies for cross technology interference/channel planning only . Server Calculation Method: Identify how the most likely server is to be determined. Strongest Server most likely server is the transmitter with the strongest Received Signal Level (RSL). HCS and Forward Link RSL Most likely server is the transmitter with the strongest RSL equaling or exceeding the sufficient signal strength and highest HCS level. The HCS level has priority, so the most likely server may not be the strongest server. MAX Servers: This value indicates the maximum number of servers to distribute the traffic for per bin. This is used for the Traffic Interfered matrix. For the service area of any transmitter, we not only include the bins 221
Optimi Corp where the transmitter is the strongest server but also bins where the transmitter is within the bias of the strongest server, which means any one bin has the potential of being included in more than one service area. Minimum Serving Signal: will either use the values specified in the site data or by selecting override and place the override value in the corresponding field. This value represents the weakest signal that is still a viable server as determined by the engineer. Interference Matrix- Area and Traffic Options: X-Wizard always creates a C/I Co-Channel (CCI) matrix. Other matrices can be created by selecting the following options. Generate Area Interfered Matrix Selecting this option will create an area interfered permissions matrix. See the Area Interfered Matrix Explanation section for more detail. Generate Traffic Interfered Matrix The traffic interfered matrix is generally the most accepted permissions matrix when using an automatic frequency planner. We always suggest using the traffic interfered matrix if you have traffic and clutter information available. See the Traffic Interfered Matrix Explanation section for more detail.
*Important Point: If Use Override is not selected, traffic MUST be populated in the Cell data dialog for each transmitter!
Generate Co-channel Interference (CCI) Histogram: Checking this option produces files that are utilized for export to OPTIMI x-AFP and the GSM Network Quality analysis ONLY. This is a GSM only option. See the details of the CCI Histogram Below *Important Point: If any of the above options does not apply to the project then leave this box unchecked! This file contains the entire C/I histogram for each TX pair; this causes a major increase in file size. Select Clutter for Weight Grid: This option allows you to use clutter weighting to better distribute traffic for the Traffic Interfered Matrix. The appropriate adjustment file should be selected for the ID Grid used. To explain Traffic Weighting a little more in depth, you can have x-Wizard spread more of your traffic to higher traffic clutter regions by applying a clutter weight. The clutter weight is a relative scale so you can put any number you wish as long as you maintain the proper scaling for you traffic distribution. As an example, lets say you have 50% of your traffic in a residential area clutter type and 50% in an urban area clutter type. You could put 50 in each type for clutter weighting or you could put 500 in each as long as whatever you put is 1/2 of the total traffic. *Important Point: Traffic Weighting must be populated in the clutter adjustment file for this option to be effective. A clutter weight of zero should only be applied to clutter IDs where traffic is not to be distributed. Max Service Area Radius: determines the calculation distance that the permissions matrix will be calculated for all participating sites. The Max Service Area Radius parameter limits the radial size of the service area. All bins outside of the radius distance from the transmitter are eliminated from its service area regardless of the value of the analysis output. However, the calculation distances are always used based upon what is populated in the calculation distances for the site. If Max Service Area Radius is larger than the site calculation distances they will not be extended. If the sites calculation distances are larger than what has been specified for the analysis, what is specified for the analysis will be used.
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13.16.3
Explanation of the Area Interfered Matrix
Rather than using the number of bins as the Y-axis parameter, this option will use the total square km (as determined by the bin size) The area interfered permat will use the bin size to determine the total square meters (KM) interfered rather than just the number of bins. This can be helpful in uniform areas. That is, those areas that are not transition areas between urban and suburban or rural. Chances are your rural bins are going to be larger than urban so they will be more influential in the histogram. Generally we only recommend using the area permat when all the included TXs are in like morphology settings.
13.16.4
Explanation of the Traffic Interfered Matrix
The Traffic Interfered Matrix will use the traffic assignments at the TX level for determining the amount of traffic (erlangs) to place over each TX coverage area; this becomes the Y- axis of the matrix calculation and will help keep the interference away from areas of high traffic. You can also override the current traffic assignment by selecting the override option. The traffic per TX is spread out over the coverage area either uniformly or with the clutter weight supplied in clutter adjustment file. If you have multiple clutter adjustment files in your project the permat traffic distribution will use the one that is assigned to the TX for coverage analysis. 223
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For each bin, the multiple server algorithms consider each server that meets the minimum serving threshold and whose signal strength is within bias dB of the strongest server. Each server is assigned a weight value based on the difference between its signal strength and that of the strongest server. A modifiable table, accessible to Wizard users, maps the weight to the differences. The algorithm weights each server based on its signal strength. The serverscale.dat and serverweight.dat files are involved in the weighting process. We put them in these files so that if you had a reason to want to use a different set of weighting constants, they could change the file. To get the probability of serving for each transmitter, divide the transmitter's relative weight by the sum of all transmitters relative weights. dB Difference 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Relative Weight 1 0.7 0.5 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.05 0
Table 1: dB Difference to Relative Weight Table The portion of the traffic in a bin assigned to any server would be that servers weight value divided by the sum of the weight values for all servers in that bin. This effectively extends the service area of a transmitter to all bins where its signal strength is within bias dB of the strongest server providing the signal meet the minimum serving threshold. An example of the calculation method is detailed in the table below. Sorted Server A B C D E Signal Strength (dBm) -63 -63 -64 -66 -70 Delta from Strongest (dB) 0 0 1 2 7 Relative Weight 1 1 0.7 0.5 0 Probability of Serving Bin 0.31 0.31 0.22 0.16 0
Where Probability of Serving Bin is calculated as:
Pr =
Relative_Weight 1 + 1 + 0.7 + 0.5 + 0
The denominator is simply the sum of all relative weights that serve the bin
13.16.5
Explanation of the CCI Generation Options
The Co-Channel Interference Generation Options modifies how the Co-Channel Interference matrix and histogram are generated and exported for the Optimi x-AFP tool There are two problems associated with generating the CCI Histogram. 1. The generated histogram file could be very large, since a histogram would be generated for every combination of victim and interferer. In many cases, the interference would be so small that the data would be of no use, and could be omitted. 2. Due to the way the analysis handles bins that are either out of range or have no data values, in many cases the histogram would have a large number of values that appear at the end of the histogram. 224
Optimi Corp This leads to a mean and standard deviation calculations that do not make sense or do not match the relevant data.
Figure 1 Figure 1 explains a histogram for a victim/interferer pair where many of the bins did not overlap. Notice a spike in the data at the end of the histogram. The solid red line represents the curve that would best fit histogram if all data points were used. The dotted blue line represents the curve that fits the data points but excludes the no data points. Selecting the CCI Generation Options helps with the above problem as described here: A filter can be set by enabling the option to ignore an interferer if its nth percentile is above x dB. The threshold is set by asking the analysis to ignore interferers when the nth percentile is above x dB. These interferers are considered to have negligible effect on the victim and are omitted from the output file. The default values for this setting are 25% and 30 dB. This means that if 25% of the bins calculated are below 30dB and 75% above 30dB the relationship is ignored. The x-wizard permissions matrix ordering of the C/I values and the CCI bell curve are basically the same. At a particular percentile you know that the C/I is = or > then x dB. If two TXs (A and B) have the percentile set to 90 in the Cell Data dialog and the permissions matrix generates C/I values of A/B=3 and B/A=16. Then it is correct to assume that if the CCI options are set to 10 th percentile and above 12dB that only the A/B relationship will be included in the CCI matrix.
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Increase the dB value to 20 and both pairs will be included. Lower the dB setting to 2 dB and neither will be included in the export. If the percentile for the CCI matrix is set to the 25 th (for example) then you cannot use the permissions matrix C/I to determine if the pair should be exported because the reading at the 25th percentile mark will typically be higher. At the 10th percentile the reading for B/A is 16dB. So, if the filter is set to 20dB then at the 10 th percentile relationship B/A would be included in the CCI matrix but at the 25 th percentile it could read higher than 20dB and be excluded. The Optimi x-AFP requires a Standard Deviation in the CCI matrix and there are three options for calculating. The method used to calculate mean and standard deviation does not filter relations, it simply determines how the mean and standard deviation will be calculated.
1. The first option to Use all bins simply calculates the mean and standard deviation by using all available data regardless of where that data is or what the strength of that data is.
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13.16.6
Editing the Permission/Override Matrix
it is possible to edit the values within the permission matrix or to create an override matrix whose values will be used in place of those in the permission matrix. To edit the values of either of these matrices, select Channels > Edit Permission/Override Matrix. A dialog box similar to the one below will appear. To modify values within the Permission Matrix, select the appropriate file then select the appropriate serving and interfering transmitters. The value created by the Permission Matrix will be shown in Permissions Value. To change that value, enter a new value. To create an override matrix (the preferred method), select New in the Override Matrix frame then specify a name for the new override matrix. A value may now be entered in the Override Value frame. It is necessary to click Save in either the Permission Matrix frame or the Override Matrix frame to save the matrices that have been created or modified.
There are two values for each pair of transmitters. There is one value for the server and another value for the interferer. Subsequent functions that use the permission matrix will utilize the worst case value for the pair. In order to ensure that a particular value is used for a transmitter pair, it is necessary to enter that value twice. Enter the value once with one transmitter as server and the other as interferer, and again with the other transmitter as server and the first as interferer. 227
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13.16.7
Permission Matrix Based Utilities
Showing Conflicts Show Conflicts under the Channels menu shows channels that, if assigned to the selected transmitter, would conflict with minimum channel spacing within a transmitter. Show Conflicts also shows transmitters that would cause a violation of the specified co-channel or adjacent channel C/I between the selected transmitter and the transmitter shown in the Caused by column of the Show Conflicts dialog box for the selected channel.
This message means that there are Transmitters in your project that does not have a Template assigned to them. The Show Conflicts mode requires a template be present for any channel that you wish to view. You can click Yes to view a list of those Transmitters that do not have a template assigned to them or click NO to continue. In the sample dialog box below, the user has selected to show channels that would conflict if assigned to Transmitter 1/0/SV of the Brockton Hwy 3 cell. The user has selected the channel display resolution "channel", a co-channel C/I value of 22, an adjacent channel C/I of 12, and voice channel 410 as the conflicting channel.
In the Caused by column, the voice channel 410 has an Co-Channel issue with the Evans St. - TX 3/0/SV sector. The minimum acceptable co-channel and adjacent for the transmitters within a cell are specified on the right-center section of this dialog, in this case, 22. You may elect to change the values specified as necessary for co-channel or adjacent channel assignments between transmitters by clicking Change in the C/I frame of the Show Conflicts dialog box.
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The dialog box shows co-channel and adjacent channel assignments that do not meet the specified C/I values and shows the transmitters and two channels that do not meet the spacing requirements. The Make List option will allow you to save the display of the Problem Channels section of the Show Problems screen to an .xls file that can be viewed outside of x-Wizard. Showing Permissible Usage The Show Permissible Usage menu item in the Channels menu results in a dialog which shows which channels can be assigned to a particular transmitter without violating the channel spacing or C/I requirements specified. This selection results in a dialog box similar to the following:
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This dialog box shows which channels could be assigned to the Danville TX 1/0/SV transmitter. The selections in the Permissible Channels section of this dialog can be adjusted to show groups, sets, or subsets of channels as well. The Permissions Matrix in the Template View Channel planning using the permission matrix in combination with the channel template view is a good way to avoid assigning channels that may have cochannel or adjacent channel issues. This utility also assists you to maintain the proper channel spacing requirement. To view the permissions matrix result with the channel template views, a channel plan and a permission matrix must be loaded. Select the Edit drop-down menu and choose the channel level to launch the Edit Channels dialog. Then, select any transmitter or the particular transmitter for channels to be added. Select the Channel Edit option
From this view, select Show Conflicts from the top menu. This will populate the template view with various colors that show what channels may have conflicts. Look at both the color of the numbers and the background colors of the cells to understand what is being shown. Colors represent channels that would or do violate the permission matrix or channel spacing requirements. Channels colored yellow represent channels that will violate the permission matrix if selected. For channels that are currently selected and do violate the permission matrix, the buttons appear to be pushed in and have a yellow border. Channels highlighted mean that those channels are already assigned to TXs within the same site. Channel Spacing violations and potential violations are indicated with a red channel number. Note by default iDEN has spacing and adjacent channels disabled. You will notice that the color assignments will change as channels are added and removed because the channel spacing and C\I requirements are also being changed. 230
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14
14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4
Interference Analyses in x-Wizard

INTERFERENCE ANALYSIS......................................................... ERROR: REFERENCE SOURCE NOT FOUND SERVER BY BEST C/I............................................................... ERROR: REFERENCE SOURCE NOT FOUND INTERFERENCE ANALYSIS......................................................... ERROR: REFERENCE SOURCE NOT FOUND CHANNEL OPTIONS RESTRICTION OF INTERFERENCE.................ERROR: REFERENCE SOURCE NOT FOUND
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14.1 Interference Analysis

A major concern for all wireless communication networks is the introduction of like frequencies or channels into the same geographic area. This man made introduction of unwanted signal is known as interference. Interference analyses are performed on sets of transmitters and always at the transmitter resolution unless specified otherwise. x-Wizard has two interference analyses available in the Analysis drop-down list: Interference and Server by Best C/I.
14.2 Server by Best C/I

The Server by Best Carrier to Interference (C/I) analysis reflects coverage based on the transmitter that has the best C/I ratio and still meets the minimum signal level specified in the Minimum Signal box. A channel plan must be loaded to perform the Server by Best C/I analysis. This analysis is always performed at the transmitter resolution. Ambient noise - represents the minimum signal level for interference. If a transmitter does not share channels with other sites, it will use the Ambient Noise only for the interference value in calculating the C/I. In addition, a minimum signal level to be considered as a server must be specified. The bands represent the C/I ratio of the transmitter having the greatest C/I. To calculate this, the ambient noise value and any co-channel signals are summed and compared to the potential serving signal levels. The transmitter with the best C/I is determined by comparing the C/I of all potential serving transmitters to determine the serving transmitter. The band limits or units of this analysis are a ratio. Set band limits to see the appropriate C/I values for a given market. After entering the appropriate analysis data, click OK to launch the analysis.
14.3 Interference Analysis

There are two main types of interference analysis in x-Wizard 1. TX level interference (standard interference) - TX level interference is run on each TX using the Channel Plan or by selecting the interferers. The interference requirement is only that each TX is using the same channel in the case of Co-channel or the adjacent channel in the case of adjacent channel interference studies 2. Radio level interference analysis (traffic interfered) Radio level or traffic interfered analysis looks deeper into the channel assignments and runs interference at the radio level to help determine the true extent of the interfered on a channel by channel basis. It is important to understand that this process is very time consuming as x-Wizard must compare all channels assigned to all TXs. It is Optimis recommendation that the Traffic interfered analysis only be run on small number of TXs after the regular interference analysis has been used to determine the contributing TXs.
14.3.1 TX Level Regular Interference Analysis

Performing interference analysis requires that the transmitters to be included in the analysis be activated. From the menu bar, select Analysis > Interference. This will result in the following screen:
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Subscriber Unit Profile select a mobile subscriber unit only when conducting an analysis on the reverse link (strongest receiver) because, a transmit power must be specified when running Strongest Receiver analysis. Server Calculation Method the various calculation methods available to the Most Likely Server analysis outlined in Section 11, Specialized Coverage Analysis in x-Wizard, can also be applied here to determine which transmitter will be determined as a server for any particular bin. Depending on the serving transmitter determined, x-Wizard knows the channel(s) assigned to that transmitter from the channel plan. x-Wizard can then determine the interfering channels for those bins as well. TXs - Transmitters to Include In the transmitter section of the cell edit screen, the three check boxes on the left labeled A, S, and V represents the status of transmitters. A represents activity status, selected for active, cleared for inactive. S is used to determine if the transmitter is a setup or control transmitter. V is used to determine if the transmitter is a voice traffic transmitter. When you select Both, in the TXs area of the Interference dialog box, all active transmitters that are designated as either Setup or Voice, or both are included in the interference analysis. Only transmitters that are included will be used in the determination of the service area of that transmitter when calculating the coverage areas. Parameters this area is where you specify the analysis parameters to use for this interference study the options are: Number of Interferers - this allows you to set how many interferers to look at in this particular run of the interference analysis. You can choose up to 10. 233
Optimi Corp Use Interferer - the interferer that you list here will be the one displayed on the map view screen when you are done Voice Activity Factor - the variable that dictates how much time the channel is in use. Worst case is 1. Choosing .5 would mean of the time the channel is in use of the time it is not. Use Interference Threshold - allows you to set the min signal level allowed to be considered interference so even if the C/I value is high if the signal is not above this limit it will be ignored.
Minimum Serving Signal Level When the interference analysis is performed, the Minimum Serving Signal level will be used to determine the extent of coverage. Any bin with a signal value that is below Minimum Serving Signal level will be served. As such, no interference will be shown for that bin either. This is analogous to the way the weakest signal level display band in a strongest server plot limits the depiction of coverage.
If the Use Transmitter Values option is selected, the value in the cell edit dialog will be used. If Override is selected, the value specified in the box immediately to the right will be used for all transmitters that are included in this analysis. Show this area of the dialog box allows you to select the type of display that will result from the interference analysis. C/I the C/I feature displays the carrier-to-interference ratio in dB (serving signal value in dBm minus the interference value in dBm) at each bin. The interference computed at a bin is the power summation of all interferers. The interfering signal represents a worst-case scenario in which the signal levels of all co-channel or adjacent-channel signals are power-summed prior to calculating the C/I ratio. RSL of Worst Interferer Compute and display the Received Signal Level (RSL) in dBm for the worst interferer showing the strongest interference level at the most likely server. If a channel plan is open, the Nth option is enabled. The N Interferer is the one listed in the Use Interferer box. Total Interference The Total Interference feature computes and displays the sum of the signal levels of all interferers identified by the serving transmitter. This result displays the interference level used in the carrier-tointerference ratio. Identify By The identify by option selects the entity whose identity will be reflected on the plot for a given bin. When Server is selected, the line style/color of the serving entity is reflected in the legend and on the plot for each bin in which that entity is the serving entity. The alternative is either Worst Interferer or Nth Interferer, depending on the selection made in the Interferers area. If All TXs is selected in the Interferers box, the alternative to Server is Worst Interferer. When Worst Interferer is selected, the line style/color of the worst (strongest) interferer is reflected in every bin in which that interfering entity is the strongest interferer. If the selection in the Interferers frame is either Select or Channel Plan, the alternative to Server is Nth Interferer. When Nth Interferer is selected, the identity of the Nth strongest interferer (where N is the value in the Use Interferer box of the Multiple Interferers frame) is shown. If there are fewer interferers than N for any given bin, no value will be shown for that bin. 234
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Interference Criteria When Co-channel interference is selected, the serving and interfering signals of co-channel transmitters will be compared.
When Adjacent Channel is selected, you must also specify an Isolation Value. The isolation value is the adjacent-channel rejection value (in dBm) of the subscriber unit receiver. For determination of adjacent channel interference, the sum of the interfering signals is subtracted from the serving signal. The resultant value is then increased by the isolation value. This allows the adjacent channel analysis to take into account the adjacent channel rejection capabilities of the subscriber unit. Remember that the transmitters you deem to be co-channel or adjacent channel will be based upon the interferers that you choose. If the method is channel plan, then the channel plan will be consulted to determine the relationship of transmitters. If not co- or adjacent in channel plan, the TXs are not considered. Interferers Select The Select feature allows you to select the transmitters that will be deemed as either co-channel or adjacent-channel. All selected transmitters will interfere with each other. If more than two transmitters are selected, the signals of all selected transmitters (except the serving transmitter) will be power-summed to determine the interference into the serving transmitter. After selecting transmitters, click OK to start the analysis. A dialog will appear asking which interferers to include. All All active transmitters are deemed to be interfering with each other. Channel Plan the channel plan and the Channel Display Options setting can be used to regulate which channels are to be included in the analysis to determine interfering transmitters. You can restrict the Interference Analysis and Co-channel features with the Channel Display Option settings. There is a new option added to the dialog box: Use Channel Display Options. By default, the setting is cleared. Channel plans are based on the Channel Display Options currently selected. Display bands Display bands depend on what is running. C/I ratios require different bands than those required by received signal levels. Choose the band limits for the interference type to be shown. By adjusting the Show, Identify Criteria and the Server Calculations, x-Wizard has the ability to display interference over 300 ways. For C/I, the unit is in dB and reflects the ratio of serving to interfering signal. Suggested values for C/I display bands in an analog AMPS system are 20, 17, 10 and -5 (3 bands). Why -5 instead of 0? it is possible for the sum of the interfering signals to actually exceed the value of the serving signal. Consider a bin with a serving signal of -85 dB and two interfering signals of -86 dBm. The interference level would be -83 dBm and the C/I ratio can be calculated as C/I=-2 dB (-85 dBm) (-83 dBm) = -2. For both RSL of Worst Interferer and Total Interference, the units are in dBm. Appropriate values range from 0 to 120 for these types of display.
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14.3.2 Traffic Interfered Analysis (Channel Level Interference Analysis)

Frequency planning is one of the main tenets in a RF design. It is important for engineers to be able to objectively evaluate a frequency plan and thereby be able to pick the best frequency plan for their engineering needs. When evaluating a frequency plan, basic interference is not often enough, to determine the exact interfering area and channels you can use the Traffic interfered analysis.
Inputs The user interface for this is relatively straight forward. It is very similar to Generate Permission Matrix using the Generate Traffic Interfered Matrix option . This analysis is only available for iDEN and AMPS/TDMA transmitters and only runs on the currently loaded channel plan, which means that you have to load the channel plan that you are attempting to evaluate . This analysis will not use the channel plan options but will run for co-channel interference on the channel level. You have a choice of showing the absolute traffic interfered or the percent traffic interfered. (as seen above) Like other analysis, you can change the analysis view between these two by pressing F7 and selecting the view that you want after the analysis has completed. The display and legend will be updated appropriately. Outputs and Results This analysis does not generate an output grid in the same sense as other analyses. The analysis produces an area grid. What that means is that unlike other analysis which do a bin-by-bin calculation and generally have differing values for each bin. The traffic interfered analysis does a transmitter by transmitter calculation, which means that for a given transmitter there is one result rather than a different result relative to the bin location. This calculated value for the transmitter is then applied to all areas in which that transmitter is a server.
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Map Results of the traffic interfered analysis Traffic Interfered Legend Like other analyses, the legend will be updated to show the ranges for the band and the associated band colors.
If you use the point mode and hover over a transmitter which took part in the analysis, the point mode dialog, will contain the traffic interfered associated with the transmitters as well as the individual traffic interfered of 237
Optimi Corp each radio and the channel associated with that radio. The point data displays the information for the transmitter that serves the bin that the mouse is currently over.
14.4 Channel Options Restriction of Interference

Selecting the Property Options available after performing a right mouse click on the Map Options Tab> Site Display > Channels section or Crtl + H results in the following dialog:
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Show only channels of the type selected for display in the Show frame will be given consideration as potential interferers. For example, if only AMPS is selected, one cell has channel 202 assigned as an AMPS channel and another cell has channel 202 assigned as a TDMA channel. In this case, they will NOT be considered as interferers because the TDMA channel will not be included. Ordering multiple selections will be enabled when more than one technology is available. The Technology First selections determine the order in which channels will appear on the display. Choosing the combined option displays AMPS and TDMA control and voice channels grouped together. Display Type If either voice or control channel types are excluded, they will not be included as potential interferers. For example, if only the voice box is selected and two cells have the same control channels, they will not be considered as interferers. Grouping x-Wizard channel plans may be displayed at five levels: group, set, and subset, channel, channel-set and count. Interference analyses are performed utilizing the channel plan resolution to determine if there are reused or adjacent channels that should be considered as interferers. If two cells both contain any one channel within the same resolution level, they are considered co-channel. Example: If you have selected the channel resolution, both cells must contain the same channel to be deemed co-channel. If Set resolution is selected, each transmitter need only contain any one channel within the same set to be deemed co-channel. Transmitters need not contain the same channel, only one channel each from the same channel set. This can be useful to enable you to perform interference analyses based on the assumption that for any transmitter with any one channel from a set assigned to it, all channels within that set have been used at that transmitter. For this purpose, the channel-set and count grouping is the same as the channel grouping. Both transmitters must contain the same channel to be deemed co-channel. Single Cell/Different Sector - Common Control Channels Interfere specifies that the control channels used on different transmitters at the same cell do interfere with each other and with transmitters of other cells. When this selection is cleared, this indicates that control channels used on different transmitters at the same cell do NOT interfere with each other--they interfere only with the transmitters of other cells. Common Voice Channels Interfere specifies that the voice channels used on different transmitters at the same cell do interfere with each other and with transmitters of other cells. If this selection is cleared, that specifies that voice channels that are used on different transmitters at the same cell do NOT interfere with each other-they interfere only with the transmitters of other cells. This allows the use of simulcast voice or voice channels on separate antennas of the same cell in x-Wizard. To allow the use of common channels on separate transmitters within the same cell without showing interference, clear the appropriate boxes at the bottom of the Channel Display Options dialog.
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15
Smart Analysis
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15.1 Introduction to Smart Analysis

Today, RF engineers are asked to do more work in less time. Any tool that can bring a quick solution is welcome. Smart Analysis is a tool designed to do just that. By combining exceptions (quality requirements), Smart Analysis allows two or more analysis results to be combined into one view. It is designed so that the engineering manager can establish a standard set of exceptions that direct the actions of the engineering team. Smart Analysis will help to answer questions such as, When is your network complete, or when does your network meet your quality specifications? Smart Analysis has incredible flexibility that permits you to build individualized exceptions for evaluating various network conditions. These exceptions eliminate the need to switch between windows frames to compare different prediction results. Smart Analysis brings real problems to light quickly rather than sorting through plots or the standard analysis outputs. Combined in a common display, Smart Analysis quickly drives engineering efforts to the heart of network problems.
15.2 Defining Your Analysis Requirements

Smart Analysis requires that you are familiar with a concept called a Predictive Primitive. A primitive is nothing more than an analysis result, 1st strongest server is an example. There are more primitives than actual analyses because each display method (analysis output) has to be defined by a separate primitive. For example, when you run a strongest server analysis prediction, behind the scenes, x-Wizard has calculated the ten strongest servers in each terrain bin. You can then have the x-Wizard display toggle between the 5th Strongest Server and the 1st Strongest Server without re-running the analysis. With Smart Analysis, the strongest server analysis has ten different primitives, one for each display (1 st through 10th strongest server). At first, the concept of a primitive may seem complicated. However, it is easier to understand when looking at familiar individual analyses. In fact, you can think of a primitive as any possible analysis output x-Wizard can display. They are the native (primitive) outputs of any x-Wizard analysis. Smart Analysis also requires knowledge of exceptions. Exceptions are logical expressions formed by using the analysis results (the primitives), and limiting them by arithmetic or logical operators. These exceptions drive the Smart Analysis. The results displayed in the map view after a Smart Analysis is complete indicate the areas that meet, or do not meet, the exceptions (limits) you have created for the primitives (x-Wizard analysis outputs). For example, you may want to see areas where the strongest server is greater than -90 dBm AND the cochannel interference is less than 17 dB. Smart Analysis allows you to define these conditions in an Exception. The coverage portion is the 1st (Strongest) Server RSL > -90dBm and the interference portion is C/I < 17 dB). Later, we will show examples with systematic instructions on how to set-up and evaluate these exceptions.
15.3 The Interface

Smart Analysis consists of three-page dialogs: 1. Evaluate Exceptions 2. Common Properties 3. Define Exceptions The Smart Analysis dialog is persistent, that is to say, the dialog must be exited in order to end a Smart Analysis session. Smart Analysis allows analyses to be run directly from the dialog to construct or modify exceptions quickly in order to change the results displayed. To start the Smart Analysis, select Analysis > Smart Analysis or use the shortcut key Ctrl+A.
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Optimi Corp Common Properties Page The Common Properties page (2nd tab) within the Smart Analysis dialog is where you set inputs common to all analyses. Typically, these analysis-input parameters will be set and this page will not be used again. Input parameters located on this page are:
Technology set the technology of the network using this field. The technology will activate the transmitter features and influence the coverage and interference analyses available to Smart Analysis. For iDEN technology projects, the smart analysis will use the AMPS/TDMA technologies analyses. Reference Grid the grid selected here is used as the reference for displaying the Smart Analysis results. Minimum Serving Signal this common analysis input can be set globally using the override feature, or values may be assigned at the transmitter level. Save Clicking on the Save option will save your setting for the next time you open the smart analysis. The Define Exceptions Page Exceptions are logical conditions that are placed on primitives (i.e. analysis results). You must build you analysis exceptions before you can evaluate them as detailed later in this section.
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An exception can be thought of as an analysis result or combination of different analysis results limited to just what you want to see. For example, an exception may display areas in the system where coverage is better than -90 dBm (i.e. the logical condition, RSL > -90 dBm). This would be the same as running the strongest server analysis and displaying a single coverage band (i.e. 0 to -90 dBm). The Define Exceptions page consists of: A name field that will let you save your exceptions and recall them later A List of Pre-Defined Primitives (analysis) Conditions for creating Boolean expressions An Equation Builder Window that displays the logical expression as it is being built
The Primitives listed in the Available Primitives are the same as those listed in the Evaluate Exception page. A variety of logical expressions may be built using the list of Primitives and the Conditions section. Select a primitive from the list and click the Add button or by double clicking on it. This will transfer the Primitive to the selected primitive window. Using the conditions, add logical operators and target values. The standard format for defining an Exception is: Select the Primitive Choose the Logical Operator Define the Target Value Save the exception or go back to step 1 to add another
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*You are allowed to define an Exception that includes more than one primitive at a time.
The Evaluate Exception Page from this dialog, changes can be made to analysis parameters, analyses may be run, or viewed to determine if they need to be re-run. Your exceptions are evaluated here to look for network quality issues as you have defined them.
The top half of the Evaluate Exception page contains a pre-defined list of predicted primitives. The list of primitives will change depending on the technology that is set in the Common Properties. Focusing on the actions that can be taken within the top half of the Evaluate Exception dialog, note that actions are driven in the Evaluate Exception page using right mouse clicks to reveal menu items. A right mouse click on any of the listed primitives allows either execution of the selected analysis or edit of the analysis input properties. The illustration below demonstrates the right mouse menu items.
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The Properties dialog allows edits to the inputs of the selected analysis. The analysis parameters that can be changed through the Properties dialog will vary depending on the Primitive selected. However, the parameters are identical to the regular x-Wizard analysis dialog. In other words, most coverage and interference analyses can be configured and run directly from the Evaluate Exception page. The Execute command will run the analysis. The list of primitives also provides information about the state of each analysis. The format of the text tells you whether the current analysis results for the primitive are Valid, Invalid (given current input parameters), or hasnt been run yet. The table and illustration below provides examples. Text Format Plain Text Bold Text Italics Text Analysis Results Condition Primitive has not been predicted yet Primitive has been predicted and is current Primitive has been predicted but the results are invalid due to a change in the input parameters.
The Exception section lists the logical exceptions that have been defined. In this area of the dialog, select one or more exception for evaluating by selecting the checkboxes. Evaluate the exceptions that have been chosen by selecting the Evaluate button. Only exceptions that have been selected will be considered when the Evaluate function is used.
15.4 Interpreting the Evaluation Results

Using the Evaluate function causes x-Wizard to test the existing primitives. x-Wizard validates the existing analysis result, if any exist, by comparing the current specifications of the sites/TXs to the analysis results in the Propmod folders. If the results are invalid or havent been run, x-Wizard automatically runs all necessary analyses. A nice result of this is the ability to double click on a valid primitive in the upper portion of the dialog and display the results for that primitive. It is an excellent way to toggle between analysis results without having to re-run the analysis each time, or navigate between analysis windows. The results of the Evaluation are shown with numeric values that indicate how many of the evaluated exceptions were satisfied. If three exceptions were selected for evaluation, the results of the evaluation would Essentials of x-Wizard 248
Optimi Corp be displayed in three bands: areas where one exception was satisfied, areas where two of the exceptions were satisfied, and areas where all three were satisfied. The Point Mode can be used to determine which exceptions were satisfied in each region (see illustration).
An example of Smart Analysis results: The bands are where one exception was satisfied; where two exceptions were satisfied; and so on for each exception. The Point Mode window (Left) indicates that the cursor is over an area where the exceptions for coverage and co-channel interference were satisfied.
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16
Neighbor Lists
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16.1 Neighbor Lists

Cellular, PCS, and similar systems support the concept of handoff or handover. As a call is dragged outside the serving area for a transmitter, other transmitters vie to receive the call and take the handoff. For every serving transmitter, a list of neighboring sites contains candidate transmitters capable of receiving the handoff. The collection of all neighbors for all transmitters is called a neighbor list. x-Wizard allows automatic neighbor list generation and geographic display of neighbor relations. x-Wizard has technology specific Neighbor List Generation for GSM, IS-136/AMPS/iDEN, and CDMA networks. x-Wizard also supports Reciprocating Neighbors, Reciprocating AKA symmetric or mutual neighbors: if A is a neighbor of B, then B is also a neighbor of A.
16.2 Automatic Neighbor List Generation

To automatically generate a neighbor list for a GSM, IS-136, WiMAX, CDMA and CDMA2000, iDEN, or AMPS network, select Analysis > Neighbor List Generation.
The same common analysis data is needed for the automated Neighbor List Generation, as the normal xWizard analysis. The Reference Grid is the output resolution; the Subscriber Unit Profile is necessary only if the Server Calculation Method Strongest Receiver is selected. More specific generation parameters are found in the Neighbor List Parameters. The following section will cover these parameters in a bit more detail. Percentile 1 Specify the percentage of coverage overlap necessary for a neighbor relation to be considered a level-one neighbor. Ten is a typical value used to get reasonable results. Percentile 2 Specify the percentage of coverage overlap necessary for a neighbor relation to be considered a level-two neighbor. Five is a typical value used to get reasonable results. Always Symmetrical This forces the return analysis to be symmetrical (also called reciprocal or mutual neighbors). The determination of a transmitter being a neighbor of another transmitter is dependent on the ratio of the number of overlapping bins to the total number of bins served. Therefore, adjacent neighbors may have different percentages and non-symmetrical relationships. 251
Optimi Corp Limit # of Neighbors per TX This forces the return analysis to consist of only the top neighbor relationship candidates. This is useful for analyses where the number of neighbors may otherwise exceed a practical number. Calculation Radius This section specifies the calculation radius for the neighbor list analysis. This value can be applied to only the reference transmitter or to both the reference transmitter and all neighboring transmitters. The application of calculation radius is useful in hilly areas or areas with relatively minimal pathloss slopes. In these instances, signals far from the serving cell are disregarded with respect to their contribution to neighboring cell relationships. Select Use Calc. Radius for Neighbors to limit the calculation distance used to calculate neighbors for the current server. If not selected, cell calculation distances used in the server calculation method for each possible neighbor is used. Some global parameters are also assigned during this analysis in the Project Parameters area: Minimum Signal Level This is the minimum signal strength predicted for a transmitter considered in the neighbor relationship analysis. It eliminates areas of low signal levels from consideration in the neighbor list generation process. If this value is 0, then the Minimum Signal Level value for each transmitter is taken from the transmitter itself. Handoff Delta Bias The Handoff Delta Bias or Handoff Bias determines serving area overlap between two sites. The bias value is in dB. If the computed signal for a given transmitter is within Handoff Bias dB of the server in a bin, the transmitter serves that bin. If this value is 0, then the Handoff Delta value for each transmitter is taken from the transmitter itself. Upon completion of the automatic Neighbor List generation, there are a few options for obtaining results in a tabulated file or hard copy print out. Selecting either or both options in the Report area of the dialog box allows for this. Show upon completion of analysis, neighbor relation statistics are generated and opened in excel or notepad. This output format is the same format that can be used to import neighbor lists from external sources. Print upon completion of analysis, neighbor relation statistics are printed using the default printer. Calculating Coverage Overlap for GSM, iDEN, IS-136, and AMPS Networks A transmitter serves a bin if the calculated signal strength is within the Handoff Bias of the serving signal strength. Therefore, the first step in the calculation of neighbor relationships is the server prediction. On a bin-by-bin basis, all transmitters are compared to the server signal strength. Remember that the server is determined by the Server Calculation Method chosen. Transmitters with predicted signal strengths within the Handoff Bias of the server are also considered to serve a particular bin. In TDMA (GSM, iDEN, etc) based networks, the Handoff Bias is considered in the analysis because it more effectively models the coverage area of each cell site. The coverage area of each cell site includes the server region and areas where the signal is within Handoff Bias dB of the server. This allows overlap between sites. There are no overlapping areas in a Most Likely server analysis. A tally for every transmitter is kept for each bin analyzed. Using the Calculation Radius and Minimum Signal Level can impact the results of the analysis. These parameters allow adjustment to the percentage of overlap and that affects neighbor relationships. The calculation radius can be applied to the reference transmitter or all transmitters. It is used to limit the analysis from considering bins at an excessive distance from a cell. For instance, in a network where a transmitters coverage area overlaps distant cells, applying the calculation radius can reduce the cells impact on neighbor relationships. Likewise, varying the threshold of the Minimum Signal Level can control the percentage of overlap. As the level of signal strength decreases, the number of overlapping bins decrease.
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In the process of generating a neighbor list, the number of neighbors and force symmetrical neighbors can be limited. The Max Neighbors per TX value entered limits the number of neighbors to the best neighboring cells. Similarly, the status of the neighbor relationships can be forced to be symmetric. Non-symmetrical neighbor relationships occur when neighboring cells have significant differences in coverage areas (square feet, square meters); hence, the percentage of overlapping bins may vary and introduce non-symmetrical neighbor relationships. For CDMA Networks Neighbor lists for CDMA networks are discussed in CDMA-specific x-Wizard training.
16.3 Geographic Display of Neighbor Relations

There are two ways to display results of the neighbor relationship analysis. Neighbor list statistics can be viewed in a tabular format via a word-processing or spreadsheet program by viewing reports of the Neighbor List. Neighbor relationships can be seen geographically by selecting the Show Neighbor icon from on the xWizard toolbar then clicking transmitter to view the neighbor relationships (see the sample display below). You can define the color schemes for the neighbor relations by accessing Format > Color Schemes and selecting the Neighbor List category. The neighbor relations displayed below represent the default color scheme:
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Optimi Corp Color Green Yellow Red Neighbor Condition Hand in/Hand out Status 1 neighbor Hand in/Hand out Status 2 neighbor Hand Out Neighbor Status 1 (non-reciprocating)
Aqua blue Reference transmitter
Magenta Hand Out Neighbor Status 2 (non-reciprocating) Gray Non-neighbor The color-coding scheme is indicated in the legend after the neighbor list is being displayed by using F10.
Selecting the Edit Neighbor icon from the x-Wizard toolbar can modify neighbor relationships. In this mode, selecting a particular reference cell (which is then highlighted in blue) and then selecting any neighboring cell can modify neighboring cell relationships. The relationship between the two sites toggles between a non-neighbor and a status two neighbor. You may also view and edit the neighbor relations from the Edit menu by selecting Edit > Neighbor Lists > Edit. The following dialog box will be displayed.
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At the top of the dialog box is a drop-down list containing all transmitters with neighbors. Here, a particular transmitter may be selected and the status of the neighbor relationships may be viewed. The status of a relationship is color-coded as previously described. The status (0=non-neighbor, 1=level 1 neighbor, 2= level 2 neighbor) can be modified in this dialog. You can format the Edit Neighbor List dialog box to display various information of interest. The Options button at the lower right-hand corner of this dialog box provides the means to configure the report.
Selecting and Saving Neighbor Lists The following dialog appears:
To select and save neighbor lists go to Edit > Neighbor Lists > Select.
To save neighbor lists choose Edit > Neighbor Lists > Save or Save As. If not yet named, the Save Neighbor List dialog appears.
16.4 Neighbor List Reports

Neighbor list reports are generated by selecting Edit > Neighbor Lists > Create Report, or by selecting to display report after the automatic generation as previously stated in this section. Report contents are based on 255
Optimi Corp the current neighbor list and settings in the Neighbor List Options dialog, described earlier. Select Edit > Neighbor Lists > Options.
Both General Display Options and Additional Report Options are written to the report. The report is text based. They can then be saved to any location by using the Save as option in your text editor, Wordpad, Excel, etc. To view a list of non-reciprocating transmitters, select the List Non Reciprocating TXs option and then create a report. The non-reciprocating list is included at the end of the report. To make the Neighbor List symmetrical at any time after its creation choose Edit > Neighbor List > Make Symmetrical. This will make all of the current Hand-In or Handout only transmitters neighbors as well.
16.5 Importing Neighbor Lists

x-Wizard will let you import a neighbor list from an external source, such as switch or BSC software. To accomplish this, data must be in a format that x-Wizard can use. The import format is the exact same as the report file that is generated during the automatic neighbor list generation or if you choose Edit > Neighbor list > Create Report once a neighbor list is loaded in your project.
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Neighbor List Report Chicago All Technologies Demo Project Percentile 1: Percentile 2: Calculation Radius: Symmetry Type: 10 5 15.00 miles Symmetrical
Transmitter Name Brockton - Hwy 3 - TX 1/0/SV | AMPS/TDMA
Cell ID IL-325
Sector ID in Switch IL-325-01
Azim. Neighbor Name 0 Brockton - Hwy 3 - TX 3/0/SV | AMPS/TDMA Brockton - Hwy 3 - TX 2/0/SV | AMPS/TDMA Evans St. - TX 2/0/SV | AMPS/TDMA Dupage - TX 3/0/SV | AMPS/TDMA O-Hare South - TX 3/0/SV | AMPS/TDMA Russelville - TX 1/0/SV | AMPS/TDMA West Rumble - TX 1/0/SV | AMPS/TDMA Evans St. - TX 3/0/SV | AMPS/TDMA Dupage - TX 2/0/SV | AMPS/TDMA West Rumble - TX 3/0/SV | AMPS/TDMA Sandusky Way - TX 2/0/SV | AMPS/TDMA Pearlston - TX 2/0/SV | AMPS/TDMA
Cell ID Sector ID in Switch Azim. Status % Overlap IL-325 IL-325-03 IL-325 IL-325-02 IL-904 IL-904-02 IL-333 IL-333-03 IL-923 IL-923-03 IL-671 IL-671-01 IL-456 IL-456-01 IL-904 IL-904-03 IL-333 IL-333-02 IL-456 IL-456-03 IL-123 IL-123-02 IL-313 IL-313-02 240 120 120 240 240 0 0 240 120 240 120 120 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 32.55 31.09 49.03 32.07 26.98 23.78 21.26 18 17.97 17.39 17.09 11.11
The above table is an example of the Neighbor List report format and the format required to import into xWizard. Within x-Wizard, the neighbor list has the following attributes: Information identifying the serving cell: name, ID, azimuth, sector ID at switch, ctrl channel Information identifying the neighbor cell: name, ID, azimuth, sector ID at switch, ctrl channel Information about the relation: % overlap, status, and Hand-in/Hand-out nature
To begin the import, choose File > Import > Neighbor List.
To be flexible enough to handle data in different formats, with missing or extraneous fields, transmitters can be named as they are in x-Wizard or by Sector ID in Switch (Cell ID in BSC, for GSM markets). x-Wizard will only import the x-Wizard neighbor list report format, so it is the only item in the list. On the right are the required import parameters. There are radio buttons select Sector ID in Switch (Cell ID in BSC when using GSM terminology) or Name-Status-User. 257
Optimi Corp Percentile 1, Percentile 2, and Default % Overlap are fields that X-WIZARD uses to calculate the status of a neighbor. The Save As field allows the user to specify the name that will appear in x-Wizard when you access the Select Neighbor List dialog from Edit > Neighbor List > Select. A neighbor is status 1 if it is part of the same site or the % overlap is greater than Percentile 1 A neighbor is status 2 if the neighbor is not in the same cell and the % overlap is less than Percentile 1 and greater than Percentile 2. The neighbors status is 0 if neither of the previous conditions occurs. The default % Overlap is the overlap percentage that will be assigned to a transmitter that is in the neighbor list but does not have its overlap percentage specified.
After you have entered the required information click OK, and the importer will start. If the importer has difficulty matching any transmitter in the neighbor list to a single transmitter in x-Wizard, it creates a report in the users directory called Neighbor.err. After the source file has been read and the report is finalized, the importer displays a dialog that allows you to view the error report by clicking View. You can then match the transmitters manually by clicking Match, proceed without matching by clicking OK, or cancel the import by clicking Cancel. You can also view the report by clicking on the View option
Matching If you click Match, the Identifier Matching dialog is displayed. There are three list boxes, one for identifiers, one for x-Wizard transmitters, and one containing the matched pairs. In the transmitter list, and the matched pair list, the active and visible states of the transmitters are shown.
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Optimi Corp You may select an identifier from the first list, a transmitter from the second list, and click, Add Match to move the selected pair into the matched list. The Auto Match button causes the dialog to search through each identifier, and if it finds one and only one transmitter in its most likely transmitters list that is Active and Visible, it will automatically match the identifier to the transmitter. The radio buttons for List most likely transmitters only or List all Transmitters determine what is displayed in the x-Wizard Transmitters list. Most likely transmitters are those transmitters that match the Sector ID in Switch to the identifier. In either case, transmitters that have already been matched to identifiers do not appear in the x-Wizard Transmitters list. You can also select an already created match and click Remove Match to move the identifier back to the Identifiers list and the transmitter to the x-Wizard Transmitters list. Clicking OK will finish the import, if there are still unmatched identifiers, a warning message is displayed, and if you click OK, the import will finish. Clicking Cancel will cancel the import and return you to the Import Neighbor List from Switch Data dialog.
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17
Appendices
1 WORKING WITH PROJECTS......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 DEFINE A X-WIZARD PROJECT..................................................................................................................... 5 1.2 OPENING AN EXISTING PROJECT.................................................................................................................. 5 1.3 THE USER ID FIELD.................................................................................................................................... 5 1.4 UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENT DATABASE PROJECTS....................................................................................6 1.5 POINTING PROJECTS TO THE CORRECT PATH.............................................................................................. 7 1.6 SAVING PROJECTS AND THE SAVE PROJECT AS OPTION............................................................................8 1.7 COPYING PROJECTS................................................................................................................................... 9 1.8 CLOSING PROJECTS.................................................................................................................................... 9 1.9 CREATE A NEW PROJECT............................................................................................................................ 9 1.10 UPDATING MASTER PROJECTS................................................................................................................ 10 1.11 WHAT IS A X-WIZARD PROJECT?............................................................................................................. 13 1.12 THE EDIT PROJECT DIALOG..................................................................................................................... 13 1.13 BASIC PROJECT DATA............................................................................................................................. 14 1.14 RF PARAMETERS.................................................................................................................................... 15 1.15 TECHNOLOGY SPECIFIC DATA.................................................................................................................. 16 1.16 FREQUENCY TABLE................................................................................................................................. 17 1.17 PERMISSIONS.......................................................................................................................................... 17 1.18 PROJECT SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................... 18 2 X-WIZARD LAYOUT AND NAVIGATION..................................................................................................... 19 2.1 WINDOW LAYOUTS.................................................................................................................................... 20 2.2 THE VIEW WINDOW ............................................................................................................................... 22 2.3 THE LEGEND WINDOW ........................................................................................................................ 22 2.4 STATUS BAR............................................................................................................................................. 22 2.5 THE TOOL BARS....................................................................................................................................... 23 2.6 CUSTOMIZATION OF THE TOOLBAR............................................................................................................. 26 2.7 MENU BAR (FILE, EDIT, VIEW)............................................................................................................... 27 2.8 X-WIZARD SHORTCUT KEYS ..................................................................................................................... 27 3 TERRAIN FILES AND THE BIN GRID........................................................................................................... 28 3.1 THE BIN GRID........................................................................................................................................... 33 3.2 TERRAIN FILES.......................................................................................................................................... 33 3.3 LOADING TERRAIN..................................................................................................................................... 33 3.4 SELECTING TERRAIN................................................................................................................................. 34 3.5 VIEWING AND DISPLAYING TERRAIN........................................................................................................... 35 3.6 TERRAIN IN THE MAP VIEW ....................................................................................................................... 37 260
Optimi Corp 4 THE X-WIZARD HIERARCHY, ENTITY STRUCTURE, AND STATES .......................................................39 4.1 THE ENTITY HIERARCHY............................................................................................................................ 43 4.2 PROJECT MANAGEMENT USING THE ENTITY HIERARCHY STRUCTURE..........................................................43 4.3 STATUS TYPES......................................................................................................................................... 44 4.4 WORKING AND MANAGING STATUS TYPES.................................................................................................. 45 4.5 USING COLORS TO DISPLAY ACTIVITY/VISIBILITY STATUS OF ENTITIES.........................................................46 4.6 THE EDIT ACTIVE MENU ITEM..................................................................................................................... 48 4.7 DISPLAYING CELL SITES USING STATUSES ACTIVE BY STATUS.................................................................49 4.8 DELETING CELL SITES USING STATUSES DELETE BY STATUS...................................................................50 4.9 USING ACTIVE SETS.................................................................................................................................. 51 4.10 USING GROUPS...................................................................................................................................... 51 5 USING THE WIRELESS EXPLORER WITH ENTITIES.................................................................................55 5.1 INTRODUCTION TO THE WIRELESS EXPLORER............................................................................................. 59 5.2 CONTROLLING THE WIRELESS EXPLORER DISPLAY.....................................................................................61 5.3 CONTEXT MENUS...................................................................................................................................... 63 5.4 THE FIND UTILITY..................................................................................................................................... 65 6 EDITING THE ENTITIES WITHIN A PROJECT.............................................................................................67 6.1 EDITING THE ENTITIES WITHIN A PROJECT.................................................................................................. 71 6.2 CREATING, EDITING, COPYING, DELETING ENTITIES....................................................................................72 6.3 THE EDIT CELL AND SELECTIVE CELL EDIT DIALOG....................................................................................73 6.4 EDITING CELLS......................................................................................................................................... 75 6.5 THE TX/RX SPREADSHEET........................................................................................................................ 78 7 X-WIZARD MASS EDITING TOOLS............................................................................................................. 92 7.1 ABOUT MASS EDITING TOOLS.................................................................................................................... 96 7.2 QUERY AND EDIT...................................................................................................................................... 96 7.3 IMPORT EXPORT PROJECT DATA TOOL...................................................................................................... 99 7.4 USING THE IMPORT / EXPORT PROJECT DATA FIELDS FOR CREATING CUSTOM SITE REPORTS..................101 7.5 OLAP FUNCTIONALITY ........................................................................................................................... 103 8 COMMON ANALYSIS DATA AND BASIC COVERAGE.............................................................................107 8.1 COMMON ANALYSIS DATA....................................................................................................................... 111 8.2 COVERAGE ANALYSIS.............................................................................................................................. 116 8.3 ENTITY DISPLAY RESOLUTION.................................................................................................................. 117 8.4 DISPLAY BAND COLORS.......................................................................................................................... 118 8.5 ANALYSIS SPECIFIC BAND COLORS PROJECT LEVEL DISPLAYS. ...............................................................118 8.6 QUICK COVERAGE USING THE SHOW COVERAGE MOUSE MODE BUTTON....................................................120 8.7 THE LEGEND........................................................................................................................................... 120 9 X-WIZARD DISPLAY OPTIONS AND VISUAL CONTROLS......................................................................123 261
Optimi Corp 9.1 WHAT IS CONTROLLABLE IN THE X-WIZARD DISPLAY? ..............................................................................124 9.2 MAP OPTIONS ....................................................................................................................................... 124 9.3 MAP ANNOTATIONS................................................................................................................................. 142 9.4 ASSIGNING VALUES TO OBJECTS............................................................................................................. 146 9.5 AREA STATISTICS ................................................................................................................................... 149 9.6 ZOOM..................................................................................................................................................... 150 9.7 COLOR SCHEMES................................................................................................................................... 151 9.8 CHANGING FONT..................................................................................................................................... 153 10 SPECIALIZED COVERAGE ANALYSES................................................................................................. 154 10.1 OVERLAPPING COVERAGE .................................................................................................................... 158 10.2 REVERSE LINK...................................................................................................................................... 158 10.3 NUMBER OF SERVERS........................................................................................................................... 159 10.4 PATH LOSS........................................................................................................................................... 159 10.5 MOST LIKELY SERVER........................................................................................................................... 159 10.6 JOINT PROBABILITY............................................................................................................................... 159 10.7 LINE OF SIGHT..................................................................................................................................... 160 10.8 PREVIOUSLY RUN ANALYSIS.................................................................................................................. 161 11 MEASURED DATA INTEGRATION .......................................................................................................... 163 11.1 MEASURED DATA FUNCTIONALITY......................................................................................................... 164 11.2 IMPORTING MEASURED DATA................................................................................................................. 164 11.3 VIEWING MEASURED DATA................................................................................................................... 166 11.4 FILTER OR EDIT MEASURED DATA........................................................................................................ 170 11.5 MEASURED DATA ASSOCIATION............................................................................................................ 171 11.6 MEASURED DATA SHIFT ....................................................................................................................... 174 11.7 COMPARING MEASUREMENTS TO PREDICTIONS......................................................................................174 11.8 BATCHED PROPAGATION MODEL OPTIMIZATION......................................................................................177 11.9 MEASURED VS PREDICTED ANALYSIS.................................................................................................... 180 11.10 MODEL AVERAGING ............................................................................................................................ 181 11.11 EVALUATING THE RESULTS.................................................................................................................. 183 11.12 MERGING OF MEASURED DATA INTO PREDICTIONS ..............................................................................183 11.13 REMOVE MEASURED DATA ASSOCIATION............................................................................................185 185 12 CLUTTER ADJUSTMENTS....................................................................................................................... 186 12.1 WHAT ARE CLUTTER ADJUSTMENTS?..................................................................................................... 190 12.2 LOADING THE CLUTTER FILE.................................................................................................................. 190 12.3 CREATING OR EDITING A CLUTTER ADJUSTMENT FILE.............................................................................190 12.4 SELECTING CLUTTER AND CLUTTER ADJUSTMENT FILES.........................................................................192 12.5 OPTIMIZING CLUTTER VALUES WITH DRIVE TEST DATA...........................................................................192 262
Optimi Corp 12.6 EDITING THE CLUTTER FILE................................................................................................................... 195 12.7 DISPLAYING
THE
CLUTTER FILE............................................................................................................. 195
13 CHANNEL PLANNING.............................................................................................................................. 197 13.1 CHANNEL PLANNING IN X-WIZARD ......................................................................................................... 198 13.2 CHANNEL PLANNING TERMINOLOGY....................................................................................................... 198 13.3 ASSIGNING FREQUENCY TABLES............................................................................................................ 198 13.4 EDITING FREQUENCY TABLES................................................................................................................ 200 13.5 CHANNEL PLAN TEMPLATES.................................................................................................................. 202 13.6 ASSIGNING A CHANNEL TEMPLATE......................................................................................................... 203 13.7 SELECTING A CHANNEL PLAN................................................................................................................ 203 13.8 HOW TO ASSIGN
CHANNELS................................................................................................................... 204
13.9 SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR IDEN PROJECTS IDEN CHANNEL TEMPLATES..............................208 13.10 SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR GSM TECHNOLOGY.............................................................................209 13.11 PN AND SCRAMBLE CODE PLANS FOR CDMA TECHNOLOGIES.............................................................210 13.12 DISPLAYING CHANNELS AND CHANNEL OPTIONS...................................................................................211 13.13 DISPLAYING CHANNELS BY CHANNEL OR TRANSMITTER........................................................................213 13.14 CHANNEL PLAN UTILITIES ................................................................................................................... 215 13.15 IMPORTING CHANNELS......................................................................................................................... 216 13.16 INTERACTIVE CHANNEL PLANNING........................................................................................................ 219 14 INTERFERENCE ANALYSES IN X-WIZARD...........................................................................................231 14.1 INTERFERENCE ANALYSIS...................................................................................................................... 232 14.2 SERVER BY BEST C/I ....................................................................................................................... 232 14.3 INTERFERENCE ANALYSIS...................................................................................................................... 232 14.4 CHANNEL OPTIONS RESTRICTION OF INTERFERENCE..............................................................................238 15 SMART ANALYSIS................................................................................................................................... 240 15.1 INTRODUCTION TO SMART ANALYSIS...................................................................................................... 244 15.2 DEFINING YOUR ANALYSIS REQUIREMENTS............................................................................................ 244 15.3 THE INTERFACE.................................................................................................................................... 244 15.4 INTERPRETING THE EVALUATION RESULTS ............................................................................................248 16 NEIGHBOR LISTS.................................................................................................................................... 250 16.1 NEIGHBOR LISTS................................................................................................................................... 251 16.2 AUTOMATIC NEIGHBOR LIST GENERATION ............................................................................................. 251 16.3 GEOGRAPHIC DISPLAY OF NEIGHBOR RELATIONS...................................................................................253 16.4 NEIGHBOR LIST REPORTS..................................................................................................................... 255 16.5 IMPORTING NEIGHBOR LISTS ................................................................................................................ 256 17 APPENDICES........................................................................................................................................... 260 17.1 APPENDIX I SERVER CALCULATION METHODS AND PROPAGATION DETAILS..............................................265 263
Optimi Corp 17.2 APPENDIX II HIERARCHAL CELL STRUCTURING (HCS) DETAILS ..............................................................265 17.3 APPENDIX III TURBO (RADIAL) VS. STANDARD PROPAGATION CALCULATION METHODS.............................271 17.4 APPENDIX IV TOWERS AND LOCATION BASED DATA...............................................................................272 17.5 APPENDIX V FCC FUNCTIONALITY......................................................................................................... 277 17.6 APPENDIX VI PRINTING AND PLOTTING................................................................................................... 281 17.7 APPENDIX VII ADDING AND USING REPEATERS.......................................................................................287 17.8 APPENDIX VIII BEHIND THE SCENES AND PROJECT OPTIMIZATIONS.........................................................291 17.9 APPENDIX IX UNDERSTANDING USER PERMISSIONS AND CHANGE PETITIONS..........................................304 17.10 APPENDIX X UNDERSTANDING HOW THE ANALYSIS MANAGER FUNCTIONALITY WORKS............................312 17.11 APPENDIX XI COVERAGE QUALITY IMPACT ANALYSIS USABILITY............................................................313 17.12 APPENDIX XII PROFILE UTILITY FUNCTION............................................................................................ 319
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17.1 Appendix I Server Calculation Methods and Propagation Details

x-Wizard has various algorithms for calculating coverage. These calculations are part of almost every analysis in the program so their understanding is important Strongest server The server is determined based on what transmitter provides the strongest signal per bin. HCS (Hierarchical Cell Structure) and Forward Link RSL The server is determined based on what transmitter has the highest priority and an RSL that is above SS_SUFF parameter. The SS_SUFF is specified for every transmitter in every cell in the system. HCS (Hierarchical Cell Structure) and Reverse Link The server is determined based on what transmitter has the highest hierarchy and receives the strongest signal from the mobile unit. The subscriber unit RSL must be greater than the SS_SUFF parameter. A subscriber unit must be selected in the mobile subscriber unit field. Minimum Path Loss The server is determined based on the RF experiencing the least path loss. No evaluation of the HCS takes place. HCS (Hierarchical Cell Structure) Minimum Path Loss The server is determined based on the transmitter having the highest priority and whose RF experiences the least path loss. Strongest Receiver The server is determined based on the transmitter receiving the strongest signal from the mobile. A subscriber Unit must be selected to utilize this method.
17.2 Appendix II Hierarchal Cell Structuring (HCS) Details

17.2.1.1 Underlay and Overlay
Consider the following output from Wizards Most Likely Server analysis which depicts an omni directional overlay sector with a three underlay sectors.
Most Likely Server
Close to the site, the lower-powered alpha, beta, and gamma sectors are the most likely servers for their respective areas. These are termed underlay sectors. The enveloping coverage represented by the surrounding sea of blue comes from the omni overlay sector. In the blue area, the most likely server emanates from the omni directional sector. Collectively you see that lower-powered sectorsthe underlaysare the most likely servers even in the presence of a higher-powered sectorthe overlay. Contrast the Most Likely Server analysis with the Strongest Server analysis. 265
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To the right, the higher-powered sector signal is strongest throughout the entire area, with a few small exceptions very close to the site. Its important to note that for both pictures, identical site configurations were used. The differences in the outputs are due completely to the choice of analysis: Most Likely Server (shown above) and Strongest Server (shown to the right). The Strongest Server analysis simply calculates the strongest signal at each location. The Most-Likely Server analysis considers a priority system in addition to signal strength. The priority system is based on HCS Tier and Thresholds. This will all be explained below. The concept should be clear. To properly model underlay and overlay systems in Wizard you must use the Most Likely Server analysis method.
Strongest Server
17.2.1.2
How to Configure Underlay and Overlay Sectors
Two steps are required to configure underlay and overlay sites. First you designate the HCS Tier per sector. Second, you set the serving signal thresholds. Underlay and Overlay sites are modeled in Wizard using the HCS Tier field. An HCS tier set to 0 represents standard sectorsoverlays. An HCS tier set to 1 represents an underlay. The picture below shows the HCS Tier settings for the 3 directional sectors and 1 omni directional sector. The image below is taken from Wizard's Cell Data dialog.
Figure 1: HCS Tier Selection You see a row for each of the four sectors. Sectors 1, 2, and 3 are the underlay sectors with 120 degree sector widths. Sector 4 is the omni overlay. Besides setting the proper HCS Tier, you must configure thresholds. You can view the thresholds in the Thresholds section of the dialog as shown below.
Figure 2: Setting Thresholds for Underlay and Overlay There are two key fields: Minimum Serving Signal and HCS Forward Link SS_Suff. As the name implies, the Minimum Serving Signal specifies the minimum serving signal for which the sector will be considered as a possible server. This concept should be clear. HCS Forward Link SS_Suff requires a bit more explanation beyond the field name. 266
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The field name, HCS Forward Link SS_Suff, is a mouthful. SS_Suff is short for signal strength sufficient. In this field you specify the sufficient signal strength for which the transmitter will be the server, regardless of the signal strength from other sectors of a lower tier number. For sectors with HCS Tier of 0, the HCS Forward Link SS_Suff need not be specified. For all other HCS Tier levels, the HCS Forward Link SS_Suff value must be greater than Minimum Serving Signal. Next well describe the priority system used in calculating Most Likely Server. Two simple rules: 1. For sectors of the same HCS Tier number, the strongest signal is the server. 2. For sectors of differing HCS Tier numbers, the higher number tier serves if the HCS Forward Link SS_Suff signal is met. To see these rules in action, lets examine the very first plot presented in this document. Here it again.
Figure 3: Most Likely Server Well focus in on the alpha sector, which faces north. The alpha sector serves in the red area for two reasons: 1. It provides a stronger signal than the beta and gamma sectorswhich are from the same HCS Tier number. 2. It provides sufficient signal (HCS Forward Link SS_Suff) even for the areas where the omni sector is strongerbecause the omni has a lower HCS tier. Reason one is straight forward because the strongest signal wins among the three sectors of HCS Tier 1. Heres the Strongest Server plot for the three directional sectors.
Figure 4: Strongest Server for the Three Directional Sectors
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Due to the HCS Tier settings and HCS Forward Link SS_Suff threshold, we know that the alpha sectors coverage is retained out to -75 dBm in the Most Likely Server analysis. The side-by-side pictures below highlight the alpha sectors coverage and its Most Likely Service area.
The plot on the left highlights a portion of the most likely service area of the alpha sector. The plot on the right shows the same sectors coverage area. The unique shape of the red banded area is identical in each plot. Before moving on to the importance of the most likely serverrather than the strongest serverfor Wizards Create Permissions Matrix analysis, we present the pairing of Most Likely Server dialog using HCS and Forward Link RSL and Strongest Server.
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Most Likely Server
HCS and Forward Link RSL Calculation Settings and Analysis Results
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Strongest Server
Strongest Server Calculation Settings and Analysis Results
17.2.1.3
Creating a Permission Matrix in Wizard
Now that weve seen the importance of HCS Tiers and HCS Forward Link SS_Suff in modeling overlay and underlay, we must do the same for the Create Permissions Matrix analysis. For the Server Calculation method, you have a choice. If youre modeling underlay and overlay sectors, you must choose HCS and Forward Link RSL. The other option is Strongest Server as shown below.
If using overlay and underlay sectors with the Strongest Server method, the underlay service area will be little to none. This is very bad! The reason logically follows from our previous discussion of service area using the Strongest Server and HCS and Forward Link RSL methods. Dont do this because poor results for frequency planning will follow!
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17.2.1.4
Summary
Modeling underlay and overlay sectors requires knowledge of Wizards service area calculations for both coverage analyses and the Create Permission Matrix analysis. To configure overlay and underlay sectors, specify the HCS Tier and HCS Forward Link SS_Suff threshold for each. When predicting the Most Likely Server plot, use the HCS and Forward Link RSL method. When creating a Permissions matrix, also use the HCS and Forward Link RSL method. Following these rules ensures that underlay sites will have their service areas properly represented.
17.3 Appendix III Turbo (Radial) vs. Standard Propagation Calculation Methods
Turbo Mode can result in decreases of 30% to 50% in calculation time. When comparing the prediction results from the old method (Standard Mode) to Turbo Mode, Optimi has found that there are differences between the predicted signals on a bin-by-bin basis. However, the overall prediction space is the same. x-Wizard offers Turbo Mode (in addition to Standard Mode). Turbo Mode does not change the propagation model equation. Turbo Mode changes the way x-Wizard generates terrain profiles. Rather than draw a profile to every bin on the calculation distance edge, Turbo Mode draws profiles only to the border terrain bins for as many radials as you specify. This saves time by storing and re-using profiles for interior bins. Since the profiles are no longer drawn to each individual bin, calculation times are much faster. The drawback is that the interior points will have different profiles when compared to the Standard Mode. This difference in terrain profiles will cause the predicted RSL to be different when comparing predictions that were run with Standard and Turbo Modes. As the terrain file resolution grows finer, the number path profiles will be larger and will take longer to construct. The percentage speed improvement of the Turbo mode will grow as the terrain file resolution shrinks, so the time penalty for using Standard mode will increase. Both PROPMOD modes today require loading the entire terrain file into RAM before processing begins. If the terrain file consumes a large portion of available RAM, Windows will be forced to perform memory page swapping which exacts a gigantic penalty in processing time. High-resolution terrain files that span a large geographic area require lots of RAM to load and require computers with a large amount of RAM to handle them. To change propagation mode follow these directions: Select Edit > Parameters > Propagation > In the Propagation Parameters screen there is a frame called Calculation Method as shown:
Select Standard or Turbo and choose Save or Save As, or apply *Just a warning: if you have already run analysis using the turbo mode then you switch to standard mode xWizard will have to re-calculate all the propmod files and save them to your hard drive. It is a good idea to give yourself ample time if you are doing this on a large project.
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17.4 Appendix IV Towers and Location Based Data

x-Wizard can display in the map view tower and airport locations. These databases can be downloaded from various governmental web sites such as FCC.gov, FAA.gov, or you can create your own database using our generic format. Prior to being able to display Towers or Airports in x-Wizard you must import and load the files into your project. The website where the FCC tower database is saved is: http://wireless.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/wtb-datadump.pl Then click on Antenna structure (Including Airports) Import Both the airports.txt and runways.txt files The various airport and tower databases are imported using the File > Import > desired Database commands. The data is read from the Source File you specify. The basic format for the import is:
At this point, the source data file is not yet in x-Wizard format. The next step is to select a long name to Import As, and a DOS-legal File Name in which to store the data. The project bounds are used to determine the bounds of the imported data. Data that falls within the project bounds will be imported. Data that falls outside the project bounds will be ignored. When importing a commercial tower database, if an error is encountered in the source file, the following message is shown:
The file, comtower.res, in the specified user directory will contain details of the error. If you want to create your own database of commercial towers, you can contact the x-Wizard support team to get the Commercial Tower format documentation and instructions.
17.4.1 Viewing Location Data

Airport, FCC Tower, Commercial Towers, and AM Tower locations can be shown on the map view based upon certain criteria. Information associated with any particular airport, commercial tower or AM tower can be viewed by placing the mouse in the appropriate mode or clicking on the displayed airport or tower. Selecting the appropriate display criteria is shown below.
17.4.1.1
Airports
The airport database is located at http://wireless.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/wtb-datadump.pl. The database consists of two files, one for airports and one for runways. 272
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The airport file must be selected; the runway file provides additional information such as the lengths of runways. As seen in the example above, the dialog allows multiple selections of files to accommodate this need To select the airports select the Property Options available after performing a right mouse click on the Map Options Tab> Location Data > Airport Options.
The Airport Database Name is the file that was imported into the project that you specify. The location criterion is used to specify the desired area for the airports. The Display Airports Only within Location Range option controls whether inactive airports, or those which don't meet the criteria, are shown in red or not shown at all. The Attribute Criteria is used to specify if you want to see private use, public use, or all airports. Select OK to display the airports that meet the selected criteria on screen. Selecting OK results in a display of all of the specified airports. Selecting the Airports mouse mode and clicking on the desired airport will show details of these airports. The data here is only available if filed by the owner. Clicking on an airport with the mouse in the Airport mode results in the following:
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Note that the Bearing from Site, Distance from Site, and Location fields will only be filled if you have selected Distance from Location for the location criteria in the Airport Display Options dialog.
17.4.1.2
Towers
The Tower Dialog Options is accessible by performing a right mouse click on the Map Options Tab > Location Data > FCC Tower Options.
The list at the top of the Tower Display Options dialog contains all of the available tower databases FCC, FAA, or Commercial. Select the database or databases you wish to search. Multiple databases can be selected by holding the Ctrl or Shift key while selecting the desired databases. Only selected databases will be searched. Select an appropriate location criterion, attribute criteria, and minimum height requirement. When you select OK, these towers will be shown on screen. Note: this is NOT the FCCs AM tower database; although it may contain some AM towers! 274
Optimi Corp Towers are displayed on screen as a yellow rectangle with an X through its center. Once the towers are displayed on screen, you can access the detailed tower information by placing the mouse in the Tower mode and selecting the desired tower or towers. To place the mouse in the Tower mode, press the Tower mouse mode button on the Mouse Mode toolbar. Selecting all of the towers shown by holding the left mouse button while dragging a rectangle across the entire map view.
The text in parentheses in the title of the dialog box tells the source database of the tower information currently displayed: FAA, FCC or Commercial. Select Done when you are finished with this dialog. Selecting the Map Options Tab > Location Data > FCC Towers option toggles the display of towers on and off. If the Towers menu item is selected, the towers in the Tower Display Options will be shown. If not selected, the towers will not be displayed.
17.4.1.2.1
AM Towers
This is the FCCs AM tower database. This file can be used to determine the distance from a planned site to the nearest AM tower that appears in the FCCs AM database. Selecting the Map Options Tab > Location Data > AM Tower options to view imported AM towers. Select the appropriate database, and location criteria. The selected AM Tower locations will be shown on screen. To access detailed information regarding any of the AM towers, select the AM Tower mouse mode, and click on the desired AM tower. If you have selected Distance from Location in the Location Criteria portion of this dialog, the distance and direction from the specified location will be included in the AM Tower Information. The Make List option on the Airport Display Options, Tower Display Options, and AM Tower Display Options is used to create an ASCII file that contains a listing of the search results. The Make List option results in the following dialog:
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Specify the directory for the file to be saved and the format of the file in the Save as type drop down list, specify a file name for the file, then select Save. Note that the EXCEL Files (*.xls) file type is actually a tabdelimited ASCII file that is easily imported into any spreadsheet program.
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17.5 Appendix V FCC Functionality

x-Wizard allows information to be created and entered based on FCC filing requirements. This Appendix provides an overview of the processes involved. For more detailed information about the specific form requirements, consult the x-Wizard Users Guide or the FCC at www.fcc.gov. FCC contours are created in compliance with current FCC Rules. To create FCC contours, activate the desired transmitters, and then select Analysis > FCC Contours. This will result in the following screen:
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If either the Setup Only or Voice Only option is selected and a transmitter does not have that particular type specified in the cell edit sheet, it will NOT be included in the analysis, even if it is active. For FCC contours, we recommend that all transmitters be used at all times unless compelling reasons exist not to do so. Use Alternate Contour Parameters For cellular applications, a formula is used to determine the distance to the FCC Contour. This formula is specified in metric units as follows: Where: D = Distance to contour in Kilometers H = Height of radial above average terrain in Meters P = Effective radiated power of radial in Watts Use Alternate Contour feature allows you to modify the values including the multiplier (2.53) and the exponents for both height and power. This function is used when producing contours for the Gulf of Mexico MSA, for using the alternative minimum values for unserved area applications, or for producing alternate contours for other wireless services. If the Use Alternate Contour Parameters option is selected and you click OK in the FCC Contours dialog, the following screen appears:
D = 2.53 H .34 P.17
Select the appropriate parameter and enter values for Factor, Height Exponent and Power Exponent if the option OTHER is selected. The Viewing OptionsFCC Contours are calculated using eight basic radials starting at 0 (North) and progressing at 45-degree increments through 315 . The distance to the contour between those radials is determined by using linear interpolation of distance based upon angle. The Show Axes option determines whether a line is drawn from the base station location to the contour along each of the eight basic radials. The Smoothing Increment value specifies the additional points (by degrees) between the eight basic radials that are used for smoothing the contour. To change the width of the contour lines, enter an integer pixel width in FCC Line Width.
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Optimi Corp A summary sheet that summarizes information for every active transmitter used to produce a contour is created and stored as a document named FCCDATA.doc in the project directory of the active project. That document can be created using either English or Metric units. If you select the View Sum Sheet option, Notepad will launch to show those summary sheets. If you select the Print Sum Sheet, those summary sheets may be printed. It is also possible to print them from Notepad after viewing them. Overriding the FCC Height/Power limitsThe FCC has specified maximum height/power combinations for use in licensing cellular systems. The FCC requires that the maximum ERP be reduced for transmitters that exceed the specified height/power limits. The limits are applied in x-Wizard, and the maximum ERP values are automatically reduced, if necessary, based upon the current FCC rules. It is possible to override the automatic reduction in power within x-Wizard. Selecting the override column (representing override) overrides the automatic power reduction for the appropriate transmitter. Selecting FCC Contours in the Cell Data screen allows access to the override column in the transmitter section by scrolling to the right. If the FCC Height/Power limits are overridden and the site actually exceeds these limits, the only warning provided is the text in the FCC Data Sheet for that transmitter. For example: MaxErp: 1000.00 ** Exceeds FCC limit of 500.00
17.5.1 User-specified Terrain, ERP, and Contour Distance Values

Due to minor differences in terrain or antenna patterns, the FCC contours that are automatically calculated by x-Wizard may not be an exact match to the FCC contours prepared by other software. It is sometimes necessary or desirable to recreate FCC contours exactly as they were originally prepared by duplicating the terrain, antenna pattern, or both. To accomplish this, x-Wizard allows you to specify values to override the automatically calculated values for average terrain or ERP for each of the eight basic radials. It is also possible to simply specify the distance used to create the contours. If you specify the values to use for calculating the contours, those values will also be used in preparation of the FCC forms. Therefore, if FCC forms will be prepared utilizing these values, it is imperative that the values for terrain and ERP be used instead of the values for distance to contour. This will ensure consistency on the form. For each radial, the distance to contour shown on the form must reflect the results of application of the FCC formula when the formula is applied to the height above average terrain and ERP shown on the form for that radial. Manual Distance to Contour values are only used to create FCC contours when using alternative propagation studies in accordance with current FCC rules. Entering Average Elevation ValuesThe average elevation values are applied to the location and are entered in the FCC Data dialog by clicking FCC. The values are entered in the eight text boxes in the FCC Terrain frame. These values will only be used if the Use? option in that frame is selected. The values are entered in either feet or meters based upon the measurement units currently specified in the Edit Project dialog. Entering ERP ValuesManual ERP values are applied to each transmitter. The ERP values are accessed by clicking ERP in the transmitter frame of the Cell Edit dialog. These values are entered in watts and are used only if the Use? option to the left of the ERP values is selected. Entering Distance to FCC Contour ValuesManual Distance to Contour values are only used when creating FCC contours using alternative propagation studies in accordance with current FCC rules. These values should remain at 0.00 and the Use? option to the left of the Distance fields should be cleared unless the contour for the specified transmitter is being filed using an FCC approved alternative propagation method. Distances to FCC Contour values are applied to each transmitter. These values are accessed by selecting the Distance option in the Transmitters frame of the Cell Edit dialog. The values are entered in units consistent with those specified in the project data (either kilometers or miles) and are used only if the Use option is selected. 279
Optimi Corp Location-specific FCC InformationLocation-specific FCC information is accessed through the Cell Data dialog. At the desired cell, click FCC located inside the site frame. In the dialog, associate this site with its appropriate FCC Market Data by selecting the proper market from the drop-down list. Create the FCC market data prior to assigning this site to a market. To access FCC Form 601 or 854, click the appropriate option. Automatically Determine Distance to CGSAA procedure exists to determine and automatically fill in the Distance to CGSA. This procedure requires the use of a picture file or overlay that contains ONLY the CGSA that will be used to calculate the distances. This procedure determines the distance to the CGSA using the rule: The distance to the CGSA for any radial is the farthest point from the cell at which that radial touches or crosses the CGSA boundary. Run the FCC Contour Analysis as described in the beginning of this appendix. Select Tools > Compute Distance to CGSA Boundary for the following menu:
Select the picture file or overlay for your CGSA boundaries and select OK. It is important to understand the process that takes place when retrieving the CGSA distances into x-Wizard. First, the distance to CGSA boundary for ALL ACTIVE TRANSMITTERS is ERASED in the Cell Data screen. Then, where the CGSADIST program has calculated distance to CGSA values, those values are used to populate the appropriate fields. Therefore, it is important that the transmitters that were active when the FCC contour was created are the transmitters that are active for the computation of CGSA distances. For that reason, it is recommended that the entire CGSA distance process be performed as a continuous process, and that no changes are made to the x-Wizard project while performing this process.
17.5.2 How to Create A Composite Service Contour Cloud for the FCC within x-Wizard
Run Analysis > FCC Contours for the desired transmitters. Select File > Create Picture File. Select Create Analysis-only File and enter a file name. The name "cloud" serves our purpose well as seen here:
Make sure you select the Combined Cloud option and select OK. Finally, double click in the newly created picture file which will be stored in the Map Options Tab> Picture Files -> Available Pictures Section.
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17.6 Appendix VI Printing and Plotting

The Print Screen functionality prints the x-Wizard map window to any Windows printing device, currently installed on your system. The output is scaled and projected, based on the projection specified for the project in the basic project settings. To access the print screen controls select File > Print Screen or use the Print Screen Toolbar button as seen here:
Analysis Out of Date Warning if x-Wizard determines that site configurations have changed and your map window is no longer displaying the most recent data you will have a display active warning you that you may be printing out of date analysis data.
Printer Select which printer and port to print to, the list of available printers is requested from windows. Media Presentation Select which items to include with the print Legend Only will print out only the current legend Map Only will only print out the map window contents and will not include a legend Legend on Map Page this setting will print both the map contents and legend on one page Separate Map and Legend using this will print both legend and map window but on separate pages. Fit to Page Select to plot the full output page (limited by width or height). The application will determine the appropriate scale for you to use to take up the page size you currently have selected for your printer. You can also select a scale in the Map Scale combo box, or manually type in your own map scale requirement.
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If x-Wizard determines that the map scale you have selected will not fit the current page you will be requested by x-Wizard to select an area to print by the correct size box as seen:
When you select OK a box the size of the scale you selected will be shown to you and you must position that box using your mouse over the area that you want to cover. Left click on the mouse to cancel printing from the scale selection mode.
17.6.1.1
Setup Printer Options
This section brings up the Print Setup dialog box supplied by the printer software. Each printers manufactures software will be slightly different below is an example of what you get from pressing setup when youre printing to Adobe Acrobat
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17.6.1.2
Adjustments to x-Wizard Printing
Selecting the Adjustment button brings up a dialog box that allows you to fine-tune the output to the specific printer as seen here:
17.6.2 Adjusting the Output Position

x-Wizard uses the standard Windows printer drivers available for each printing device. As such, x-Wizard has no control over the data that the printer driver controls. To eliminate some of alignment problems, x-Wizard provides a way to adjust the position of the plot on the output page. These adjustments can be modified in the Start Offsets and Scale Dimensions sections of the Printer Adjustments dialog box. Depending on your particular situation, set the X Offset, Y Offset, and X and Y Scale values as explained below. X Offset Controls the offset from the left side of the output page in the X direction (horizontal). A positive value moves the starting printable area to the right by the value specified in output device units. Y Offset Controls the offset from the top of the output page in the Y direction (vertical). A positive value moves the starting printable area downward by the value specified in output device units. X and Y Scale represents the fraction of the original printable area that is applied to this printing device. Example... if you find that your Print Screen plots don't fit on the output page, you can set this value to .95 assigning 95 % of the original "official" page size to the plot. 283
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NOTES The exact size of an output device unit is dependent upon the device. Therefore we cannot tell you that 300 units equals 1 inch. Typically, you can try a few small values and see what works. If you set either of the X Offset or Y Offset values, you should also change the scaling factor. Typically the scaling factor can remain close to 1.00 (such as .99). If you set any of these values, x-Wizard accounts for them in the map scale and projection calculation. These adjustments are saved and remembered for the given device and user (PC). These values are saved in TECC.INI.
17.6.3 Pixel Mode and Area Mode Printing

Given the nature of the x-Wizard project sizes it is often required that very large plots are created by users of the x-Wizard program. These plots can often be difficult for most computers to spool and using high end printing hardware and software is always recommended if this is going to be done routinely from x-Wizard. In an attempt to lessen the requirements and provide greater control over the printing of analysis x-wizard uses two other controls known as Area Mode and Pixel Mode printing that are covered in this section.
17.6.3.1
Pixel Mode Printing
Pixel mode determines the proper color for each pixel on the output device. Sometimes this means that the program has to compute and print a large number of pixels. This dialog box provides some controls to allow you to send more reasonably-sized plots to your printer.
The Pixel Mode Printing section modifies how terrain and analysis data is printed when using the pixel mode print method. The Use Output Device Pixels selection uses the output device pixel as its standard pixel. If you are printing directly to your printer (i.e., no bitmap is being used, as described in the next section), then the program calculates the color of each pixel on your printer so if you have 1200dpi printer x-wizard will need to calculate 1200 points per inch over the entire area of your plot. If you are printing a very large map this could mean literally millions of pixels that will require processing. The Use Macro Pixels (A macro pixel is a larger pixel than the pixel of the output device) selection computes the color for each "macro pixel" on the output. The Macro Pixel Size field specifies the width and height of the macro pixel in output device pixels. If the Macro Pixel Size is set to 4, then a macro is a 4x4 pixel area on the output device. The plot file will be roughly 16 times smaller than a standard plot, though the resolution will be somewhat coarser. For most output devices, this should be a negligible difference. 284
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17.6.3.2
Area Mode Printing
Area Mode Printing modifies how terrain and analysis data is printed, whether you print directly to the printer device or if you use an intermediary bitmap file.
The Do Not Use Bitmap selection prints directly to the output device. If you are using pixel mode, you are setting the color of every pixel on that device. The Use Bitmap selection creates an intermediate bitmap that the program prints to first, using the bitmap option can lessen the requirement on the printer as the bitmap will be created first on the local computer that has more processing power than the printer. When the printing to the bitmap is complete, the bitmap is copied to the output device. The size of the bitmap does not exceed the value specified in the Bitmap Size fields, and is specified in kilobytes. This option allows for printing on lower end printers that may not be able to handle the large printing files that are generated. Using a bitmap reduces the total number of pixels that have to be printed. The printing operation runs faster and creates a smaller plot file if a bitmap is used. The problem with using a bitmap is that some printer drivers don't process them correctly. Optimi has noted that some printer drivers flip the blue and red colors when printing the bitmap, and other printer drivers obscure the plot with large black rectangles. These problems are not caused by x-Wizard itself, but by incorrect printer drivers. If you experience these problems, check with your printer manufacture to see if an update printer may be available.
17.6.4 Best Practices and Print Preview

If you are unsure about the above settings, Optimi recommends the following: Turn on the Use Macro Pixels selection. Turn on the Do Not Use Bitmap selection. Set the Macro Pixel Size field to be 4-6 for smaller plot (A & B) sizes, 8-10 for (C & D) size plots and 12-15 for larger E size plots.
You might want to experiment with these settings to find the best combination for each printer and plot size. We don't recommend using both the Use Macro Pixels selection and the Use Bitmap selection at the same time, since they can produce a coarse plotuse one or the other. Remember that using neither of them can produce a large plot file that your printer may not be able to handle.
17.6.5 Print Previews
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17.7 Appendix VII Adding and using Repeaters

In x-Wizard, the radio or channels are transmitted via the transmitters that are located at a given cell site or sector. In real life, the repeater is another radiating element. The repeater re-broadcasts the signal from its donor transmitter. Unlike transmitters, repeaters arent located in the same location as the cell site or sector. The latest release of x-Wizard gives you the ability to model repeaters in a system.
17.7.1 In the Cell Data dialog

Repeaters can be assigned and modified in the same way as transmitters via the transmitter section of the cell data dialog.
This technology determines whether the item is a transmitter or a repeater. If an item is specified as a repeater, Edit Radio brings up a new dialog that lists the entire set of available donor TXs for the given technology.
Once a donor TX is selected, its radio information will be inherited by the repeater. A repeater may not be created without a specified donor site. The Technology determines which type of donor TX to use. If an item is specified as a repeater, it will repeat all the radios assigned to the donor TX. The repeater also inherits the RX sensitivity information in the power budget of the donor site. Since the RX Sensitivity is inherited from the donor site, the power budget of a repeater may not be modified unless a donor site has been specified.
17.7.2 Quasi Omni Sites

Quasi-Omnis are sites that have a single set of radios. The signal from those transmitters are split between three or four sectors at the same site. In other words, the same signal goes out all antennas. While primarily an iDEN specific situation, there are many instances in GSM, TDMA, and CDMA where bi-directional sites are 287
Optimi Corp deployed along a highway. Bi-directional sites are less complicated versions of the Quasi-Omni (i.e. two sectors rather than four). Quasi-Omni tries to model this situation using repeaters. They create a donor transmitter at a site, next create two or three repeaters at the same site with the first transmitter as the donor. In v6.4.1 or earlier, x-Wizard did not allow the user to use a donor transmitter that exists at the same site. This was problem in several ways. Primarily, it restricts the use of CellOpt AFP. The permissions matrix will show interference between the second and third repeaters and therefore avoid the assigning co-channel at the sectors. x-Wizard 6.5 and later allows the user to be able to create a donor transmitter and have the repeaters at the same site without having to create a second site. To create a Quasi-Omni site you simply have to create the first Transmitter at the site as whatever technology you are modeling. After that, you can add more transmitters and assign them the "Repeater" technology. Finally select the Edit Channels and choose "Current Cell" for the Donor TX x-Wizard will allow a donor to have more than one repeater assigned to it. x-Wizard treats each repeater as not interfering with the original donor for the purposes of predicting interference. In the permissions matrix, any interference experienced by the repeaters is included in the calculation of the donor. This is done so that there is no need to manipulate data in the AFP. Repeaters are not included in data sent to the AFP. The radios associated with the donor TX will be displayed in this area as read only. There will also be a row of check boxes allowing the selection of which radios to repeat.
17.7.3 In the Map View

Now that repeaters have been created, there is a simple way to distinguish repeaters from transmitters both in the map and in the Wireless Explorer. A drawing symbol and icon is used in the map and in the explorer respectively. In the map, the repeater is represented by the TX sector with a sector half its size within it. In the Wireless Explorer, a repeater appears twice once under its parent sector using the transmitter icon and under its donor site using a new repeater icon.
x-Wizard also displays the relationship between the repeaters and their donor TXs. There are two display options. One option is similar to the co-channel mouse mode. When selecting a transmitter, all of its repeaters will be drawn in a different color. When you select a repeater, its donor TX and its sibling repeaters will be drawn in a different color. This uses the indicated tool bar button.
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The upper shaded TX represents the donor site and the lower shaded TXs represent the donor site repeaters. In the map view a yellow arrow will point to the repeater from the donor. There is a display option in the Entity Relationship dialog that causes the map to draw lines connecting repeaters to their donor Transmitters. The main difference between the two schemes is that the mouse mode shows the relationship of the selected item and selecting the Show Repeater/Donor TX relationship from the View > Entity Relationship shows the relationship of all displayed entities. There is also a special parent-child relationship between donor transmitters and their repeaters. If the donor transmitter is inactive, the child repeaters will be inactivated by the parent. This also applies to changing visibility. This relationship is the same in both in the map and in the Wireless Explorer. When viewing analysis information, it is helpful to distinguish repeaters from transmitters. To accomplish this, the point data dialog is updated to assign a (RPT) tag next to the name of all repeaters.
17.7.4 Channel Plan Changes

The frequencies occupied by the repeater are completely dependent on the donor transmitter. Users cannot assign or clear channels via the template view. However, the radios available to repeat may be selected. Therefore, the radio view is the only means of modifying channels/radios for repeaters. *The channels occupied by the repeater are the channels that the repeater is repeating. The channel that is repeated will show up in the channel template view and edit channels dialog. Since the repeater operates on certain radios, the radios that the repeater uses are stored with the channel plan. The donor/repeater relationship is stored with the transmitter. Therefore, radio properties of repeaters may be viewed regardless of whether or not a channel plan is loaded. (Co-channel) Repeaters reflect the channels of their donor sites and they dont interfere with their donor sites. Repeaters are an extension of donor sites. The co-channel display has to be updated much like the channel plan display except that in this case, co-channels between repeaters and donor sites are ignored.
17.7.5 Neighbor List

Only transmitters can be neighbors; repeaters cannot be neighbors. Therefore, the edit neighbor list dialog ignores all repeaters as possible source sites. Even though repeaters cannot be neighbors, they are extensions of the donor site. In the show neighbor list, mouse mode repeaters are colored the same as their donor sites. Essentials of x-Wizard 289
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17.7.6 Repeaters and Analysis

Repeaters are special entities that dont transmit signals but instead rebroadcast the signal from a transmitter known as that repeaters donor site. It is easiest to categorize the repeater effects on analysis into groups. Analyses that treat repeaters as just another transmitter - this includes the following analyses: N- Best, Number of Servers, Overlapping coverage, Interference analysis in the select mode, and Statistical Interference in the select mode. These analyses behaved in the same way as they did before. A repeater is treated like a normal transmitter. Information about the donor site and noise figure increases are ignored. Analyses that combine the effect of repeaters and their donor site in this case, if a bin is covered by a repeater and a donor site. The signal at that bin is the combination of the repeater and the donor site. These include interference using channel plan or All TXs and Statistical Interference using channel plan or All, Server by Best C/I, Most Likely Server, and Joint Probability. Two examples of analysis that combine the effect of repeaters and their donor sites are: Neighbor List generation. For the neighbor List generation, repeaters cannot be neighbors. Therefore, all bins occupied by repeaters are assigned to the repeaters donor transmitter Create Permission Matrix. The permission matrix represents the relationship between transmitters, not repeaters. Therefore, all bins occupied by repeaters are assigned to the repeaters donor transmitter. Analyses that treat repeaters as the donor site with more noise - Include the following analyses: reverse link and most likely server using the reverse link methods. In these analyses, the repeater is essentially replaced with the donor transmitter except the noise is increased by the noise figure specified for that repeater. Essentially, the transmitter information specified for that repeater is ignored and the transmitter information of the repeaters donor site is used. The noise is increased by the noise figure increase specified for that repeater. The most likely server analysis occurs in more than one group. This is not a mistake. In the reverse link methods, the analyses and the signal for the donor and repeater are combined and the donor sites transmitter information is used with the increased noise figure.
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17.8 Appendix VIII Behind the Scenes and Project Optimizations

x-Wizard is not a single program, but many smaller programs that work together. The x-Wizard program orchestrates all behind-the-scenes interactions. Using this type of software architecture allows x-Wizard to perform multiple tasks at the same time.
17.8.1 The x-Wizard Program

The x-Wizard executable program, Wizard.exe, is the user-interface portion of x-Wizard. It also acts as the interface to other x-Wizard functions. The x-Wizard interface has been designed to resemble any other Microsoft Windows program, so that users are familiar with its appearance. It includes the menus and dialogs, the geographic display, and the tool bar.
17.8.1.1
The Prerequisite Checker (Preqchk.exe)
When you request an analysis such as a coverage analysis, the x-Wizard program passes all of the parameters necessary to perform the analysis to the prerequisite checker program. The prerequisite checker then determines the necessary steps to accomplish the requested analysis and determines what information, if any, is required to present the existing analysis. The PC then calls other programs as necessary to create any missing information required to complete the analysis. For example, a request for strongest server analysis with only macro-cells prompts x-Wizard to launch the prerequisite checker. The prerequisite checker then spawns any operations necessary to calculate coverage; first, PROPMOD calculates signal strength, then SNGLSERV applies the antenna pattern and ERP specified, and finally MLCOVER compares each sector and shows the strongest one.
17.8.1.2
Other Programs
Several analysis programs such as coverage, interference and overlapping coverage are generated by the prerequisite checker. There are also many other processes such as importing and exporting files that are separate programs.
17.8.1.3
Using Long Descriptive Names within x-Wizard
Whenever x-Wizard prompts for a name, it is possible to use long names. Examples are the project name, names of overlays such as roads or other picture files, and terrain. This is possible with files called DOT-DIR files (filename.dir). These are text files that relate the long name assigned to a short, DOS LEGAL filename that is assigned by x-Wizard. The .dir files are also used to store other information about the files to which they point. In general, the format of a single line in these files is as follows: Long name assigned by user |DOS 8.3| A long name assigned by the user is accepted as input from the user and DOS 8.3 is a standard, legitimate DOS 8-character file name with a 3-character extension. The DOS filename is automatically assigned by xWizard and can be looked up using the *.dir file. The character that separates the data in a .DIR file is the Change Bar symbol (|).... Usually located on the keyboard on the (shifted) backslash key (\).
17.8.1.4
The x-Wizard Directory Structure
The x-Wizard directory structure has been defined to separate different types of information and allow easy access to that information. With the exception of the x-Wizard initialization file and the TECC.INI which is found under the \WINDOWS (or WinNT) directory, and the DLL files which are found in the \WINDOWS or (WinNT)\SYSTEM sub-directory, all other x-Wizard files will be found under the path that you choose when you install x-Wizard. 291
Optimi Corp \Path\ANTENNA contains the antenna patterns. \Path\BIN contains the x-Wizard program files. \Path\CLUTTER contains clutter files. \Path\COMMON contains propagation parameter files and channel-to-frequency relationship files used when importing certain types of measured data. \Path\COMMON\TEMPLATE contains channel plan template files that define how channels are laid out (N=7, N=4, etc.). \ Path\COMMON\TOWER contains tower drawings that are used for Exhibit F in the FCC applications. \ Path\PROJECTS contains the PROJECT.DIR file which references all of the projects, and the project subdirectories. \ Path\PROJECTS\PROJx contains all of the project information for a specific project. The x represents a number from 0 to 9999 in this and all subsequent uses of the term PROJx. \ Path\PROJECTS\PROJx\AIRPORT contains the airport files. \ Path\PROJECTS\PROJx\AMLOC contains AM tower location files. \ Path\PROJECTS\PROJx\BUILDING contains building files. \ Path\PROJECTS\PROJx\CHANPLAN contains the channel plan files. \ Path\PROJECTS\PROJx\CINTERF contains files that relate to interference calculations based upon the channel plan. \ Path\PROJECTS\PROJx\DELTA contains files that relate to measured vs. predicted analyses. \ Path\PROJECTS\PROJx\FCCPROG contains FCC contours. \ Path\PROJECTS\PROJx\HPGLFILE contains HPGL formatted output files. \ Path\PROJECTS\PROJx\MARKET contains files containing data that relates to market-specific FCC information. \ Path\PROJECTS\PROJx\MEASURED contains measured data files that have been imported into xWizard. \ Path\PROJECTS\PROJx\MICROWAV contains saved point-to-point microwave files. \ Path\PROJECTS\PROJx\MLCOVER contains files that relate to strongest-server analyses. \ Path\PROJECTS\PROJx\PICFILES contains picture files that can be used as overlay files or be exported from x-Wizard into other formats. \ Path\PROJECTS\PROJx\PICFILES\ANNOTATIONS\ contains user created picture files that can be displayed, edited or be exported from x-Wizard into other formats. \ Path\PROJECTS\PROJx\PROPMOD contains files that are the first step in coverage or interference analyses. \ Path\PROJECTS\PROJx\QINTERF contains files that relate to interference calculations not based upon the channel plan. \ Path\PROJECTS\PROJx\TOWER contains FCC and FAA tower database files. \ Path\PROJECTS\PROJx\USERS identifies the project's users. \ Path\PROJECTS\PROJx\USERS\DAN contains user-specific data such as backups of the projects and zoom levels. \ Path\PROJECTS\PROJx\DAN\ACTIVE contains files that define user-specific active sets within the project. \ Path\PROJECTS\PROJx\DAN\ANALYSIS contains files that define user-specific named analyses. \ Path\TERRAIN contains the terrain files.
17.8.2 Project Back-ups

x-Wizard can automatically save copies of current projects. Backups are valuable if the standard project file is damaged, or if irrevocable but unintended changes are made to a database project. In the Tools > Options > Project Settings, a variable dictates the number of backups per user that are stored. This file is located in the Windows or WinNT directory. x-Wizard defaults to the following settings: Database Backups=1 When Database Backups is a positive number, for each save or close, a copy of the x-Wizard database (xWizard.MDB) will be saved in the current user's directory. The number specified indicates how many saves are maintained. 292
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17.8.2.1
Locating a database backup file
Database backups are stored in each user's directory. When a user saves a database project (File > Save Project) or exits x-Wizard, a copy of the current database file (x-Wizard.MDB) is placed in the user's directory. If the project is an ASCII project, the files that are Entity.dat, FCCData.dat and Project.dat are stored.
17.8.2.2
Restoring a database backup file
From the Windows Explorer: Browse the users directory of the project In Windows, run Start > Find > Files or Folders. Type *.MDB for database. A list of all the project copies will then be available. Determine the desired backup file to use. Copy this file(s) to the PROJECT directory and name it as x-Wizard.MDB. For example, if the project is stored under \Path\PROJECTS\PROJ1, copy the backup file to this directory as x-Wizard.MDB. This will restore the project to the state in which it was last saved.
17.8.3 Optimizing Database Projects over a Network

Accessing a database from a local machine is the best option, but not the most practical. Most users use a database project so that others can work on the project at the same time. The primary user may want to consider keeping the database local rather than on a network machine to prevent other users from experiencing poor performance due to network performance constraints. x-Wizard database projects are stored in MS Access format by default. For an MS Access database, network performance is a key factor in determining x-Wizard performance. Other database formats are available that will help performance specifically with multi-user environments. *x-Wizard also can utilize Oracle version 8 or higher to save and run projects. While network performance is still an issue at any time, the Oracle platform is designed to be a more robust enterprise level database application. It should provide a more stable and faster operation, for x-Wizard at the WAN level. For more information about the x-Wizard Oracle option, please contact the x-Wizard support team or your Optimi sales rep. For projects stored on a network machine, some optimization techniques are: Use SCSI drives and controllers. SCSI controllers take the burden off the processor during file access. With many users, this can improve performance dramatically. Defragment the hard drive often, this may require a system or network administrator to oversee this process on a server. Dedicate a server for each group working on a common x-Wizard project to limit the number of sessions on the server. Use high-speed network connections. Those using 100BaseT should consider upgrading to 1000BaseT, which is approximately 10 times the throughput speed of 100BaseT. Remember as well that when upgrading to 100baseT lines all Network cards, switches, and routers will need to be updated to 1000baseT as well. Otherwise, network traffic will bottleneck. Use fast or managed switches and routers to minimize network collisions.
Adding additional processors to the server will help, but it is also essential to use an operating system that supports dual processor machines such as Windows NT/2000/XP, not Windows 95/98/ME. 293
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17.8.3.1
Troubleshooting Network Performance
When uncertain as to how the network is affecting performance, copy the project to a local machine and run basic comparisons (between the local project and networked project) for: Opening the project Closing the project Editing a cell site
If you find the local version has much better performance, it may be time to upgrade the network configuration.
17.8.4 Project Management Tools

x-Wizard also has a compilation of tools that can be used for project management. A project in x-Wizard as well as the actual program retrieves and stores data from various folders as seen above. All of these folders can be stored in a central location or spread across a network. Keeping x-Wizard projects in good order is an essential data integrity practice. There are circumstances that require the need to delete data or entire projects that are no longer valid. This section covers some of the program tools that will be beneficial to your ongoing project edits and interactions with x-Wizard.
17.8.4.1
Compare Projects
An official copy of a project may be open or stored on a server while a copy of that project is on a desktop or notebook. Changes may be made to the local working copy--use the compare projects tool to see how the working copy differs from the official project. The Compare Projects function allows two projects to be compared. Differences between the projects are displayed in the dialog and can be sent to a file. Compare Projects is useful in determining small changes between two project files. To run the Compare Projects function, first open both projects in x-Wizard, and then select Tools > Compare Projects. The currently active project will be designated the Base Project. Select the other project in the dropdown list. Any changes between the two projects will be displayed in the Differing Entities list. To see the exact differences, click on an entity in the list. To store the differences to a file, click Save. To save the changes for viewing, click Save Details and the changes will be stored in the Differing Entities section.
17.8.4.2
Merge Projects
It is often advantageous to merge data from one project to another. Merge Projects allows all or part of the data from a project to be merged or copied from one project to another. The following section contains a walkthrough of the merge process. Open the source and destination projects at the same time. If channel plans are to be merged, select channel plans for both projects. Activate the project destination by clicking on the project window for the destination project. From the Tools drop down menu, select Merge Projects. In the Merge Into dialog box, select the source project from the Select Source Project to Merge list box. This list box will contain projects other than the destination project that are opened.
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Select the appropriate Merge Level. This indicates that the merge will be done at the desired level. The entities available in the source project for the merge are displayed in the Entities to be Merged section. Select one or more entities to merge. Multiple selections are allowed. With entity selected in the Select Merge Level section, the Destination Parent of Merged Entities lists destination entities that are possible parents of the source entities in the entity hierarchy. Select the parent entity for the merged entity or select None when not assigning a parent entity. Click OK to begin the merge process. Depending on the projects being merged and the entities being merged, there may be conflicts. A name conflict exists if a source and destination entity of the same entity level shares the same unique name. In this case, the Merge Name Conflict dialog box is displayed.
The first four lines in the Merge Name Conflict dialog describe the conflict. The present five destination choices are described here. Merge into Destination with New Name This allows the name conflict to be resolved by assigning a new name to the conflicting source entity. Enter the new name. Merge Children into existing destination project entity This will merge the child entities of the source entity with the name conflict into the destination entity with the name conflict. This eliminates the conflict by removing the conflicting source name. Overwrite Existing Entity (and its children) in destination project This overwrites the destination entity with the name conflict with the source entity. Skip this Entity (and its children) This operation ignores the merge for the conflicting names. The result is that the destination entity remains unchanged. Essentials of x-Wizard 295
Optimi Corp Stop merging at this Point This option stops the merge operation at this point and retains all merge operations performed up to this point. Merging at other entity levels is done in the same fashion. Note that it is possible to have cascading conflicts. That is, there may be a conflict at switch level (identical switch names such as two Switch As) and each switch may have a cell site with the same name. x-Wizard will handle these situations by presenting the Merge Name Conflict dialog box for each conflict encountered in the merge process.
17.8.4.3
Cell List Files
Often engineers have the need to use project data in other tools for regulatory, statistical, or marketing requirements. The need to have a single file that contains all of your project's statistics is a valuable resource. x-Wizard includes a file export for projects that may be opened with a spreadsheet or text editor such as Excel, Wordpad or MapInfo (if you are familiar with the import table process of MapInfo). This allows various macros to be run or written to retrieve or organize project data export to fit individual needs. To create a cell list file, first open the project, then select File > Export > Cell list File. Once selected, a dialog box appears to designate where to save the cell list file. Once saved, that file may be opened from the saved location with the programs being used to view or edit the cell list. Unlike the Import / Export project data, the cell list file cannot be imported back into x-Wizard. It was created for use in other programs or for regulatory / logistical requirements.
17.8.5 Deleting Analysis Results Cleanup Old Analysis Files

Saved analysis results and all associated files will be maintained for ALL users regardless of whether or not the saved analysis matches the current state of the project. To maximize the effects of Cleanup Old Analysis files, first delete any unwanted saved or named analysis. To best understand the cleanup old analysis feature one must first understand the reason x-Wizard stores the analysis data grids in the first place. When a user requests an analysis to be run in the application first checks to see if that analysis or any transmitters included in that analysis have been run in the past. This checking is done by a program known as PreqCheck.exe and it is launched when the user requests an analysis to run. There are three main storage grids in the x-Wizard analyses: 1. Pathloss Grids These grids are known as .prp or propmod grids and they store the path loss study for the transmitters these grids take the longest time to process as they are profile studies that require the complex propagation model algorithms. 2. Signal Grids The .sng files are the transmitter level signal calculations 3. Analysis Specific Grids Each of the various x-Wizard analyses will create a different set of grids depending on the specifics to the analysis. There are too may to list here but because of the way the cleanup process works users do not need to know them all. These grids are stored in the projects folder in appropriate storage folder so if a user requests an analysis to be run preqcheck.exe can simply find the existing grids and re-display them or use them to apply new calculations. A convenient X-Wizard feature is the ability to perform any number of "what if" analyses, or analysis on prototype or test sites. X-Wizard's Prerequisite Checker determines what is current, what needs to be run, and uses previously computed results wherever possible. As new configurations are run, older configurations will remain although they may never be needed again. This can result in the consumption of large amounts of disk space.
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17.8.5.1
How Does x-Wizard Know What to Delete?
X-Wizard uses a process similar to its prerequisite checking to Cleanup Old Analysis Files. This process deletes analysis files that no longer correspond to any entity configuration or any saved analyses within the Project. In other words, if the clean process finds a grid that does not correspond to any transmitter in the project OR if the grid does not belong to any of the user saved analysis data it is allowed to be destroyed. This process automatically scans each project subdirectory and determines which files can be deleted. After an analysis is completed the user has the option to save the analysis files for later viewing as see here:
Once saved any grid file that is associated with the Saved Coverage Plot user analysis will not be allowed to be destroyed by the cleanup old analysis data process. To delete a saved user analysis the user must select the File > Delete menu and select the saved analysis from the Named Analysis list under Project Specific Data as shown here:
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17.8.5.2
How to use the Cleanup Old Analysis Tool
From the Tools menu, choose Cleanup Old Analysis Files.
To prevent inconsistencies between available data and analysis results, the Cleanup Old Analysis Files function is not available when an analysis is running. Similarly, when the Cleanup is running, you cannot run an analysis.
Click yes if you want the cleanup to begin, Click No if you want to cancel the Cleanup Process After selecting Yes or No, The Analysis Running indicator (the YELLOW box) will be shown in the status bar at the bottom of the main X-Wizard window. The Cleanup process will start the destroy.cmd window which is the cleanup process engine. You can view the cleanup in progress if you wish by selecting the destroy.cmd from the taskbar as see here:
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Note Do NOT close the Destroy.cmd window with the X in the window. This will cause the cleanup program to stop and you will not complete the cleanup process. When the Cleanup has completed, you will be notified with a message box. Click OK, to clear the message box.
Saved analysis results and all associated files will be maintained for ALL users regardless of whether or not the saved analysis matches the current state of the project. To maximize the effects of Cleanup Old Analysis files, first delete any unwanted saved or named analysis. As you will see even after the cleanup process is complete the Named Analysis data is still available for the user to select by selecting File > Open View > Named Analysisas seen here:
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17.8.5.3
Cleanup Old Analysis and the View Previous Run Analysis
x-Wizard also maintains a list of all previous run analysis. This list can be viewed by selecting View > Previously Run Analysis as seen here:
This list is not the same as the user saved named analysis. This list is a historical record of all the previously run analysis for this project. It is important to note that when using the cleanup old analysis files tool that the View Previously Run Analysis list is not updated or altered in any way. Older analyses may still be listed here even if their grid data has been removed. The user will get the following message if an analysis in this list does not have valid grid data to display:
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To remove a previously run analysis from the list that no longer has valid grid data simply highlight that analysis in the list and select the delete button in the View Previously Run Analysis window.
17.8.5.4
Best Practices
To make the best use of the Cleanup Old Analysis Files tool Optimi offers these best practices to follow. Run the Cleanup Old Analysis Files tool on a regular basis - The longer you wait to run the tool or the longer the time span between runs the longer the process will take, and the more space your old invalid grid files will take up on your hard drive. For larger project or multiple user projects you may want to run cleanup on a weekly basis.
If you want to save an analysis give it a name to avoid any lost analysis grids that you would like to save it is recommended that you give the analysis a name after completion. This will flag the analysis grid files as saved and they will not be removed by the cleanup tool.
17.8.6 Deleting Project Files

You will amass a great deal of data while working in x-Wizard. It is often necessary to delete parts of projects or entire projects to keep your files sizes to a manageable level.
17.8.6.1
Deleting Global and Project Files
To delete either global or project files from the File menu, select Delete. The following dialog box will appear:
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Optimi Corp Click either Global or Project in the File Type box. From the Pull down list, select the type of Global or Project File you wish to delete. Click Delete to delete the files, Done to cancel Global files are files that do not correspond to a particular project. For example, antenna files are global files because they may be used in any project. Project files are specific to an individual project. Active Sets and picture files are examples of project files. You will be asked if you are sure that you would like to delete anything within x-Wizard. Once removed, there is no built in retrieval method such as a recycle bin or an undo button.
17.8.6.2
Delete Entire Project
You can delete an entire Project in one easy, dangerous procedure. The project and all the project data will be deleted. x-Wizard will prompt you before it deletes the selected Project to ensure that you absolutely want to. To Delete a Project from the File menu, choose Delete. Select the Entire Project and choose the project you would like to delete. In the dialog box, click on the names of each Project you want to delete. Click Delete to delete the highlighted Projects. You will be asked to confirm the deletion of each Project as shown below. Click Yes to delete the project. Click Yes to All to delete all the selected projects. Click No to retain the Project. Click Cancel to cancel all remaining deletions
17.8.6.3
Compact and Repair
Database projects are stored by default in Microsoft Access format perform queries against the database in order to provide you with only the requested data. These queries are automatically stored in the project and cause the size of the database to grow. To reduce the size of the project and save both disk space and speed, occasionally you should "compact and repair" a database project. It is not possible to compact and repair a database project if anyone is currently logged into the project. To find out who has the project opened, log into the project yourself and select Help > Project Information. The Database Information frame contains a list of the Users Logged In. Notify each user to log out of the project before attempting to compact it. All users, including you, must log out of the project in order to compact it. After everyone is logged out of the project, select Tools > Compact and Repair Database Project:
To select projects on different drives, select paths then specify a different project drive. To compact and repair any Access database, select Browse and select any .MDB file. This can be useful for compacting and repairing the backup copies of a database that are stored in the Users directory of the project for each user. 302
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17.9 Appendix IX Understanding User Permissions and Change Petitions

This section will help you understand the different permission levels and settings for projects to properly administer user rights. User Permissions are assigned by the project administrator and are stored individually for each project. For every project that is set up in x-Wizard project administrators will need to specify the permission given to each user or the default user permission level. It is important to understand that if you do not want to use permissions in your x-Wizard projects you should just not enter passwords and ignore the Permissions field in the Edit Project window. x-Wizard takes on the "Start Wide Open" model for permissions, that is, everyone has permissions to everything UNTIL someone (the project admin) sets the permissions. To access the project permissions section open the x-Wizard project a select Edit > Project > Permissions. From this menu any user with the Administration permission will be able to change permissions for users and set the permissions for any new user.
17.9.1 Understanding User Permissions

It is important to understand the different permission levels and settings for projects to properly administer user rights. User Permissions are assigned by the project administrator and are stored individually for each project. For every project that is set up in x-Wizard project administrators will need to specify the permission given to each user or the default user permission level. It also important to understand that if you do not want to use permissions in your x-Wizard projects you should just not enter passwords and ignore the Permissions field in the Edit Project window. x-Wizard takes on the "Start Wide Open" model for permissions, that is, everyone has permissions to everything UNTIL someone (the project administrator) sets the permissions. To access the project permissions section open the x-Wizard project a select Edit > Project > Permissions. From this menu any user with the Administration permission will be able to change permissions for users and set the permissions for any new user.
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17.9.2 The Different User Permissions

There are three main categories of permissions. Each category will apply permissions to different aspects of the x-wizard program.
17.9.3 General
The general permissions settings will define the following: Administration - This permission level will allow the user to administer permissions to other users. The first person who ever logs into the project will automatically have all permissions and is considered to be the administrator. The administration permission also gives the user the ability to set the <Default for New User> permission level by highlighting the default for new user section and checking the permissions desired for all new users. The administration permission also allows the user to add new users, delete existing users, and set passwords. Remember to hit Apply to save your permission changes when finished Any user can change their password. An administrator can change any user password. An administrator cannot remove administrator permission for their own user name. Project Specific Data - Users granted this permission will be able to delete project specific data such as picture files, demand grids, permissions matrix, and anything listed in the File > Delete > Project Specific drop down menu. System Creation - Only users with system creation permission can create new system in the project. Channel Plan Creation - Only users with channel plan creation permission can create new channel plans. Status Creation - Only users with the Status Type Creation permission will be allowed to create new or edit existing entity status types.
17.9.4 System
Each system that exists in the project will have an entry in the system permissions category. Each system can be limited on a per user basis to the Channel Plan permission or the Physical Data permission
17.9.5 Definitions of the Channel Plan and Physical Data Permissions

Channel Plan - Only users with channel plan permission can modify channel plans. Permissions will be checked when trying to do these channel related actions: Edit a channel. Edit a radio. Import channels. Merge channel plans. Delete channel plan. Physical Data - This allows users to Create, delete and modify any project data, from system to transmitters. Only users with Physical data permission can modify sites. Permissions will be checked when trying to do these actions: Add a new cell site Delete a cell site Edit cell site data Rename a cell site Change a cell sites parent Essentials of x-Wizard 305
Optimi Corp Change any of the sites sectors or transmitters Edit after a Query Merge projects Import project If you do not have permissions to do the above actions you will see the following warning.
It is also important to note that permissions work at different levels, you may have permission to a specific status type, yet not have permissions to sites because of the system permission.
17.9.6 Status Permissions and Data Privileges

Each status type in the project will have an entry in the status permissions category. As new statuses are added to the project (by users that have the permission to do so) they are added to the list. Each user can have either channel plan, or physical data permission to any entity that is assigned that particular status type. Full Data Privileges will give the user change any of the entity data for that status type. Select the Data Privileges button to see a list of the data privileges that can be configured for each user. See below for the Configuration of restricted data for statuses.
17.9.6.1
Data Privileges
Specific data privileges can be assigned to users for each of the status types you have defined in your project. This allows you to better control the data security of your wizard project
To give a users the right to edit only particular fields of a site with a given status type just select (check) the fields you want to include for this user. All other fields (unchecked) will not be available to the user. 306
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Note only TX and Site Level Data permissions are listed, Data privileges for the Radio Level are currently handled by the Channel Plan permissions but only for those technologies that use a channel plan such as AMPS, TDMA, GSM, and iDEN. Checking the Full Data Privileges box under a status will cause these options to be ignored.
17.9.7 Configuration of Restricted data for Statuses:

x-Wizard has a user interface (Edit -> Project -> Permissions) to allow only user with Administration privilege to configure the data-level restrictions for the various users at different status types. Checking the Full Data Privileges box at a status gives that user full access to all the data of that status type, and all setting described below are ignored. If, however, the box is unchecked, then the selected user will have certain restrictions which can be specified by clicking the Data Privileges button as seen in the edit project dialog at the top of the page.
In the above example, Gary (administrator) sets user IAN to not have access to Official status. IAN has full permissions on What If and NONE sites but there are certain fields he is not allowed to change when editing Official sites or by Multiple Edit, Import, and Merge. Changes to those fields can only be done through the RA/Corporate Change (Petition) submission process. See Details. Below is an example of the Site Data screen that IAN will see when he edits an official site.
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Restricted fields are disable when user w/o Full Data Privileges for Official status
The Edit Project dialog - User Information below the Permissions tab allows you to enter personal information and apply a data restriction profile used in the petition submission process. The layout is almost the same as the Permissions tab . The Edit Profile button allows admins to setup different profiles which are stored in the ProjectFolder\RESTRICTION_PROFILE.DAT. The file format is the profile name followed by a list of data fields that are restricted once applied to user. Note: The profile is not the same as the users real set of data permission. In other words, if the applied profile is changed after being set to a user, that users restricted data set will not be changed accordingly. The users restricted data set from the Permissions section will always take precedence. Administrators can also apply profiles to more than one user at a time by multiple selecting users (Control and Shift keys) and select Profiles. 308
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Data Privilege dialog allow viewing and changing a profile.
17.9.8 Working with Petitions

Changes are reviewed and submitted from the Tools > View Changes menu.
Figure 6: Menu command for Petition Review Tool 309

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Choosing the View Changes item brings up the dialog in Figure 7. The dialog shows all differences between What If sites created by the current engineer and the corresponding Official sites. The engineer can select any or all differences and submit a petition.
Figure 7: View Changes dialog The Submit button brings up the Petition Submission Confirm Dialog shown below.
Figure 8: Petition Submission Confirm Dialog A petition name is required. The Submit to: field is also requiredyou can directly type in an email address or select from the list of users. This requires that the computer that x-Wizard is using has an e-mail account that can be utilized to send e-mail. The recipient of the e-mail will receive a notice that they have new petitions waiting for them, and they must log into the x-Wizard project to view and approve / reject those petitions. Users without e-mail can still submit and approve petitions, however they will not be notified that petitions are pending.
17.9.9 Petition Review

A submitted petition is viewed and can be rejected or accepted through the Tools > View Changes or Petitions > Review Petitions dialog.
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Figure 9: Review Petitions dialog By default, the dialog shows all pending petitions submitted to current user. The Delete button is enabled for project administrators. This action will permanently remove the petition from the database. Across the dialog top are 3 filters: Status, Reviewer, and Submitter. Filters are configured to display petitions. The filters work using a logical AND operation. To view the details of a petition, double-click on a petition name or select one and press View Detail.
Figure 10: Detail view of a submitted petitionwith review notes and editable grid field. Reviewers can approve or reject the petition. If approved, the reviewer can modify the submitted data. 311
Optimi Corp Gold-colored fields indicate lack of data permission to change. This situation can occur if a reviewer without full permission to approve all changes for multi-tiered approval schema. If the reviewer approves this set of changes, x-Wizard instructs the reviewer to re-submit the petition to the next level of management. Partial approvals require data edits. If the reviewer wants to reject one or more changes (for example, azimuth) he can change the data back to the original data given in the official data column and then click approve. The reviewer can also change the data to something else so that there is a change but the change is not the change suggested by the engineer. Whenever a reviewer makes a change to the petition submitted by the engineer a review note is automatically added to the petition saying what is the change and who made it. The reviewer can also manually enter reasons for the change or modify the suggested x-Wizard text. The Approve and Reject buttons, as well as the ability to enter Review Notes and edit changed fields, are available for Reviewer and project administrators only. For other users the petition details can only be viewed not changed.
17.9.10
Reporting
The Generate Report button in dialog in Figure 9 generates a report for the selected petitions (multiple selection is supported). This process generates 2 files: The <PetitionName>_inf.txt file has general info about the petitions. The <PetitionName>.xls file has the column format, convenient for user to extract the needed info.
17.10 Appendix X Understanding how the Analysis Manager functionality works
Analysis Manager as Sidebar (ENLARGED in foreground) All available analysis result grids are now one click away. For example, a best server analysis run for 3 servers creates 3 coverage grids, one grid for each of the 3 best servers. The Analysis Manager lists each of these individually for immediate access. The Analysis Manager also supports the existing Show Delta display, based on the currently displayed analysis and an analysis selected from the Analysis Manager. 312
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The Analysis Manager Context Menu Show Analysis is available here to immediately display the grid results. The same came be accomplished by double-clicking on the analysis Name. Edit Notes allows you to name the result. The Edit Notes dialog below assigns the name of 1 to the Best Server grid above.
Analysis Notes Lastly, the Analysis Manager can launch the new Coverage Quality Impact Analysis . As input the Impact Analysis takes two completed analyses and compares the impact difference, where impact is a measure of improvement or degradation based on target analysis thresholds per clutter type. Please consult Appendix IX for more information on Coverage Quality Impact Analysis.
17.11 Appendix XI Coverage Quality Impact Analysis Usability

Site addition, removal, and modification are very common practices in wireless networks. Understanding and estimating the impacts of these tasks to the quality of the network can be very valuable, as making bad decisions can lead to wasted revenue and dissatisfied customers. The Coverage Quality Impact Analysis aids in making sound decisions based on numeric/statistical results which ultimately lead to generating more revenue with happy customers. The following types of questions can be answered with this analysis: Among several candidates, which candidate site is the best to be decommissioned? What is the decrease in coverage if a certain site is decommissioned? Whats the improvement after a site configuration optimization?
The Coverage Quality Impact Analysis geographically focuses right in on the answer as well as provides you the impact in terms of traffic while considering coverage requirements per clutter. The following example highlights this exciting functionality. Consider the following GSM strongest servers analysis. 313
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Sector to decommission
Starting GSM Strongest Servers Coverage Were going to consider the impact of decommissioning the indicated sector. First, lets look at the resulting coverage analysis.
Coverage after Decommissioning a Sector From this altitude, differences are hard to spot. So we zoom in. The zoomed coverage is the image on the right. A quick observation is that only a few spots in the sectors former coverage area now fall below the -85 dBm threshold. Maybe decommissioning is a good idea. Displaying a Delta between the first and second coverage provides more details.
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Coverage Delta After Decommission Clearly there are differences. But again, only a few areas dropped below -85 dBm. If -85 dBm is the required analysis value, then the decommissioning might just work. We still need more information to decide.
1) What coverage thresholds are required for the relevant clutter types? 2) How much traffic is affected by the decommissioning?
From the coverage and the required coverage thresholds, we can determine the affected areas. From the affected areas, we can determine the impacted traffic. Now lets consider the required analysis coverage values as specified in the Edit > Clutter Adjustment File dialog.
Essential Columns of the Edit Clutter Adjustment Dialog. and these clutter types displayed in the area of interest:
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Clutter in the Area of Interest The area has a spot of Low Density Residential, a major Highway, Commercial areas, and extensive areas of both Urban and High Density Residential. Coverage criteria vary from clutter type to clutter type. From the Clutter Adjustment File picture we see that required coverage values range from -85 dBm down to -93 dBm. How well do we meet the coverage requirements? The answers for before and after decommissioning are below (left and right side, respectively). The areas in red do not meet the coverage requirements.
Before and After Decommission--Failure to Meet Required Coverage Thresholds The decommissioned sector contributed to more unmet bins. These are reasonably easy to spot by looking at the two separate runs of Network Diagnostics above. How many more bins do you see on the right-hand image? For large areas with many engineering changes, making sound judgment on the visual information would likely prove difficult because youll additionally have to consider areas of improvement and areas of degradation. Here weve only got degradation due to the single change. In the next image produced by the Coverage Quality Impact Analysisyou can clearly discern the areas that are improved (none in this case) and the areas that were degraded between the before and after (decommissioned) case.
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Degraded Areas Identified by Coverage Quality Impact Analysis From the steps youve seen, it should be very clear that a lower signal does not necessary lead to degradation. Degradation occurs if previously required thresholds were met and after the required thresholds are not met. Likewise improvements represent areas that previously did not meet the required threshold but now do. An example should hammer this important point home. Consider a bin with a required coverage threshold of -85 dBm. Now consider the before and after signals in that bin: 1) -83 dBm 2) -75 dBm The second case has a higher signal but the first case had already met the required threshold. Youve powered more signal strength to the bin essentially for no gain. You may even be introducing detrimental interference that you do not want. The last consideration here is traffic. By failing to meet the coverage threshold for the 4 bins, how much traffic is impacted? You could sum up the traffic in each of the 4 bins or refer to the Coverage Quality Impact Analysis report. In the case of the 4 degraded bins, the total traffic affected there is 267.49 mErlangs. To run the Coverage Quality Impact Analysis, right-click the baseline grid in the Analysis Manager tab, and then Run Coverage Quality Impact Analysis from the context menu shown below.
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Starting the Coverage Quality Impact Analysis from the Analysis Manager This operation displays the Coverage Quality Impact Analysis dialog.
Coverage Quality Impact Analysis dialog The Grid to Evaluate for our study is the decommissioned coverage. For the Clutter Threshold Operator select >= Required Analysis Value because thats the condition we desire to meet. OK starts the analysis. Thats all there is to getting the wealth of critical information described in this section. You now truly know the impact of your system changes based on affected traffic. 318
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17.12 Appendix XII Profile Utility Function

17.12.1 Overview
The path profile utility in x-Wizard is used to view point to point predictions on a side view rather than the normal overhead view of the x-Wizard map window. The profile tool will dynamically view a horizontal 2D profile of the terrain, clutter and the analysis data, along with some common RF engineering outputs that can be used to help troubleshoot design or coverage issues.
17.12.2
Starting the Profile Utility
The profile utility can be started by selecting the profile mode button from the x-Wizard toolbar as seen here:
Once selected you simply need to click on the map window to start the profile utility.
17.12.3
The Anatomy of the Profile Window
The profile window is a dynamic window that will change to reflect the current map view. The basic layout of the profile window is shown here:
The various sections are labeled in this screen shot but we will go over them so you have a better understanding of the data that is available to you with the profile mode.
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17.12.4
The Menu Area
The menu area is the control center for the profile utility and allows you to make any changes to the profile that you want to change. The following an example of the menu area with a quick description of each of the different menu options. More details will be provided below for larger menu items.
Title Section the title defaults to "Terrain and Data Profile" on a single line. The title can be made up from three lines. Press Title to change the title information. X Scale Change the endpoints and the data displayed along the X-axis of the profile. The x-scale settings will allow you to lock either the start point or end point of the profile to a particular lat long or by selecting a site from the dropdown menu shown below. Distance increments and vertical gridlines can also be set for the xaxis.
Y Scale Change the data displayed along the Y-axis of the profile. Gridlines can be turned off for either the analysis data section or the terrain data section by the checkbox options. You can also control the upper lower and incremental values for both sections here as seen. Note the use of meters or feet will vary based on your project settings. 320
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Coverage Profile this Menu enables you to select a site and run a virtual show coverage analysis on that site. On completion, x-Wizard keeps track of the coverage (.sng) grid generated by the show coverage and uses the grid for drawing the profile. In addition to that, you can select parameters for the Fresnel, Probability and Reverse Link calculation. Details can be found below in the coverage profile settings section. Options Section the options section is a dropdown list that controls what you are displaying on the current profile window. The checkboxes enable the display of the various draw and show options.
In addition to all the Show and Draw settings you can also set: Anchor to Site This option locks the end point to the site that is selected in the Coverage Profile or the x-axes dropdown windows. Adaptive Scaling this option will auto-adjust the values of the profile to fit the range of values that encompass the data within the profile.
Print a list of available printers to your computer will be given here so you may print the current profile Exit this button will close the profileyou may also close the profile with the x in the upper right corner of the profile window.
17.12.5
The Analysis Data Profile and Terrain\Clutter Profile Sections
The profile window is a dynamic window that can display both the current analysis data profile and the current terrain data profile with or without the clutter. Double clicking on either the top section (analysis data) or the lower section (terrain & clutter) will fill the entire profile window with just the data for that section. To go back to the default (both views) simply double click on the profile window again.
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Optimi Corp The data displayed in both of the sections will vary depending on you current Options menu settings, Coverage Profile menu settings, and the current display on the x-wizard map view. The Analysis Data Profile The Analysis data section will display: The currently run analysis (blue) The current coverage profile of an anchored site (Red) As seen in the screen shot below you can display both at the same time. Note you must have run the current coverage profile from the Coverage Profile menu options that are selected. The red line follows the coverage of the currently selected TXs coverage, while the blue line follows the currently run analysis such as strongest server.
The Terrain & Clutter Data Profile This section display: Terrain data profile from the currently assigned project (display) terrain file Clutter data from the currently assigned project (display) clutter file The Line of Sight (LOS) profile (Brown) The Fresnel Zone (Aqua)
The clutter is represented by spikes that match the height and color of the clutter types assigned in the current project level clutter adjustment file. The colors bands displayed on the terrain profile match the current analysis bands displayed on the x-wizard map view.
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17.12.6
RF Data and Coverage Profile Details
The Profile Utility in x-Wizard can be used to display some basic RF engineering parameters as well as running a coverage profile from a given sight to the currently selected endpoint. These options are displayed by using the Options menu from the menu bar but are configured in the Coverage Profile section.
17.12.7
The Coverage Profile Section Details

The Transmitter drop down list box displays the available transmitters. Selecting a transmitter from the list populates certain fields with its dialog. Note if you have Anchor to Site selection in the Options menu of the profile window the Transmitter selected in this list will be the anchored site. The Run Coverage button triggers x-Wizard to run a virtual (behind the scenes) show coverage, which does not display the result on the map view, thus preserving the existing displayed analysis. This allows both the analyses result and TX coverage to be drawn simultaneously on profile window. This button and OK button will be disabled when an analysis is currently being run (Remember x-Wizard does not allow concurrent multiple running analyses). Fresnel Zone Calculation Section Antenna AGL, is taken from transmitters radiation center. The display of meters or feet will be converted based on measurement system assigned at the project level. Base elevation, also taken from the sites elevation, will be displayed based on measurement system and will be disable when Use Terrain is clicked.
The Use Terrain mimics the Edit Cell\BTS dialogs Use Elev functionality. When clicked, it uses the terrain value for that site otherwise uses user entered value at the Base Elevation edit field. Receiver Height is initially taken from propagation parameters height of the mobile (antenna height). If none is assigned, it uses project value. If no project value is assigned, it uses a default value, which is 6 feet. Frequency is a variable that you must enter, and is defaulted to 2 GHz. The K-Factor or earth curvature is defaulted to 4/3; the Other edit field will be disabled unless selected. Once enabled, user can enter a value. The Clearance selection is defaulted to 0.6F1 (.6 into the first Fresnel zone). Other edit field allows user defined value once selected. Coverage Area Probability Section This area is use to determine the probability of coverage for the given endpoint based on the settings populated in the dialog box. The display of the coverage probability is in the RF data section of the profile window as seen here:
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The probability of coverage is calculated by: Where:
P( x ) =
1 1 x mx erf 2 2 2
= Minimum Serving Signal = Standard Deviation
m x = RSL at mouse location
The Minimum Serving Signal uses TXs min serving signal value from the transmitter data of the project. Standard Deviation is another variable that you must enter (usually based on your prediction model's accuracy) which aids in the determination of the coverage probability. Reverse Link Profile Section This area is used to calculate the Received RSL at the selected transmitter on the reverse link from the endpoint to the anchored TX. The display of the reverse link received power is also in the RF data section as seen here:
Mobile Transmit Power is a variable used to determine the reverse link coverage; generally you put the max PA power of your desired subscriber unit. Reverse Link Profile Coverage is calculated by:
Prx ( dB ) = Pmstx ( dB ) PL( dB ) + G( dB ) PL( dB ) = ERP( dB ) RSL( dBm )
Where:
PL( dB ) = Pathloss value ERP ( dB ) = transmitters ERP RSL( dBm ) = RSL at mouse location from Snglserv Pmstx ( dB ) = Mobile Transmit Power G( dB ) = Reverse Link gain from power budget
17.12.8
Defaults and Ranges
The various parameters of the Coverage profile settings have specific ranges that you must use based on the following table (English Measurements): Field Name Minimum Default Maximum Antenna AGL 1 100 2000 Base Elevation -500 Sites value 30,000 Min Receiver Height 1 From propagation value 2000 Frequency (GHz) 0.0001 2 100 Min Serving Signal -250 Txs value 0 Other K-Factor 0.01 0 N/A Other Clearance 0 0 1 Standard Deviation 0 8 20 Essentials of x-Wizard 324
Optimi Corp Mobile Transmit Power -30 30 50
17.12.9
Snap Shot Mode
It is worth noting that when initiated, the dialog fills the fields with data based on the transmitter selection. Once you click the OK button, the Profile Utility takes a snapshot of the data and keeps it in memory. This means, any changes to the internal data after pressing OK button will not be reflected by the profile window. Such example include: changing the minimum serving signal of the selected transmitter.
17.12.10
Map View Interaction
The Map View in x-Wizard is updated while the profile window is active. You can re-size and move the Profile window while trying different profiles. The data shown in the windows will automatically be updated as you change locations.
If you have the Show Azimuth option selected from the Options menu in the profile you will also see the azimuth from the anchored site change as you move your profile shot to different locations on the map view and in the Profile window. Distance readout is also available in both the map view and profile window as well.
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Essential of Wizard

x-Wizard 7.1.1.x Training Manual

Essentials of x-Wizard Copyright 2006 Optimi Corporation

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support@optimi.com www.optimi.com support.optimi.com/forums Live On-Line Chat

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CLUTTER FILE............................................................................................................. 195

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Essentials of x-Wizard Copyright 2006 Optimi Corporation

Essentials of x-Wizard Copyright 2006 Optimi Corporation

Working with Projects

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Define a x-Wizard Project

Opening an Existing Project

The User ID Field

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Understand the Different Database Projects

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Pointing Projects to the Correct Path

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Saving Projects and the Save Project As Option

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Create a new Project

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1.10 Updating Master Projects

Context menu for project level in the Wireless Explorer

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New Site W5 now available under O'Hare 12

1.11 What is a x-Wizard Project?

1.12 The Edit Project Dialog

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1.13 Basic Project Data

1.15 Technology Specific Data

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1.16 Frequency Table

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1.18 Project Summary

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x-Wizard Layout and Navigation

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Wireless Explorer (WEX)

Enhanced Side Bar

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The VIEW Window

The LEGEND Window

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The Tool Bars

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General = New project Open project Save project

Customization of the Toolbar

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Menu Bar (File, Edit, View)

x-Wizard Shortcut Keys

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Terrain Files and the Bin Grid

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The Bin Grid

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Multiple Terrain Files for Display