LTE Planning with ASSET

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LTE Planning

Define

Equipment definition
(Antennas, Feeders,
MHAs)
Propagation model
specification
Advanced Antenna
Systems (MIMO)

Configure

Build

Analyse
Plan

Traffic Model

Node Template
Creation

Coverage Analysis

LTE Frequency Bands

LTE Frame Structures
LTE Carriers
LTE Bearers
LTE Services
LTE Terminals

eNodeB Configuration
Traffic Maps

Capacity Analysis
Simulator Outputs
Simulation Reports
Interactive Result
Visualisation

Define

Antennas and Feeders

Antennas can be stored in different folders
depending on the project, technology,
beamwidth, etc. and multiple patterns
(e.g. different elec. tilt) can be stored
under the same antenna device.

Antenna mask and gain can be directly

edited by the user and the option of
viewing together the masks of two
different antennas is also available.

New antenna devices and patterns can be

easily added by the user by specifying
their parameters (e.g. Tilts, gains, etc.) and
masks.

Feeders can be defined by specifying

appropriate losses.
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Define

Propagation Models
The Macrocell Models are based on Okumura
Hata with enhancements for diffraction
calculation and clutter specific losses.

The MYRIAD Universal model can be used as a

single semi-deterministic model for the whole
network regardless of the environment.

Full integration of all major ray tracing models:

Siradel Volcano
Wavecall Wavesight
AWE Winprop 3D

Propagation model assignment per antenna.

Option of using two different models per
antenna for different distances.

Define

MIMO Support
LTE Physical Layer is designed to employ
MIMO (Diversity and Spatial Multiplexing)
techniques for optimum performance
improvements.

Cyclic Delay Diversity and Pre-coding used by

MIMO systems provide enhanced spectral
efficiency and coverage benefits.

ASSET supports all Multi User (MU) and Single

User (SU) MIMO configurations.

Adaptive MIMO switching can also be

modelled.

Clutter dependent SINR Adjustment and Rate

Gains can accurately predict network
performance.

Define

Analyse

Configure

Build

Configure

Traffic Modelling
The traffic model is based on a hierarchy of carriers, bearers, services and terminals.
This can be summarised as:
Carrier represents a Channel Bandwidth with specific # of Resource Blocks
Bearers represent a specific modulation & coding scheme
Services defined by the rate of the service and the QoS Class Indicator
Service can be supported over one or more carriers (Channel Bandwidth) using
multiple bearers
Terminal able to subscribe to multiple services

Configure

E-UTRA Bands and EARFCN

LTE will operate in wide range of spectrum with:
flexible transmission bandwidths
simultaneous deployment in different E-UTRA bands

ASSET provides all E-UTRA Frequency Bands.

Following LTE modes of operation are supported:
Frequency Division Duplex (FDD)
Time Division Duplex (TDD)

Also, the flexibility to define customized frequency

bands\ EARFCN is available.

Network Planners will be able to model all possible

Co- and Adjacent Carriers (Channel bandwidths)
interference scenarios.

Configure

Frame Structure - FDD

ASSET provides a generic interface to
define TDD and FDD Frame structures.

LTE frames are of 10 ms duration; each

frame consists of 20 slots of 0.5ms.

Two consecutive slots are referred to as a

subframe. In each FDD frame, 10
subframes are available for both UL and
DL transmission.

Normal\Extended Cyclic prefixes

influence the # of OFDMA symbols per
slot (Resource Block).

Variable Subcarrier Spacing allows the

users to define # of subcarriers per slot
(Resource Block).

Configure

Frame Structure - TDD

Type 2-TDD frame consists of two 5 ms
half frames; each half frame consists of 8
slots and 3 special fields (DwPTS, GP,
UpPTS).

All six TDD frame Configurations which

define the # of UL\DL subframes, are also
supported.

Subframe 1 (S) in all configurations and

subframe 6 (S) in configurations 0, 1, 2
and 6 consists of DwPTS, GP and UpPTS.

Configure

Carriers (1/2)
Channel Bandwidth [MHz]

In ASSET, each LTE Carrier represents a

Active Resource Blocks

Support for all LTE specific:

channel Bandwidths (1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15
and 20MHz)

respective # of Resource Blocks (6, 15,

25, 50, 75 and 100)

Flexibility to define users specific

Channel Bandwidths and # RBs.

Ability to associate each carrier to an EUTRA band and its:

Low\Start and High\End frequencies

Low\Start and High\End Low and
EARFCN
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Channel edge

Transmission
Bandwidth [RB]

Resource block

Channel edge

Channel Bandwidth with specific # of

Resource Blocks (Transmission Bandwidth
Configuration).

Transmission Bandwidth Configuration [RB]

DC carrier (downlink only)

Configure

Carriers (2/2)
Modelling of all Physical Channels and
Signals for Coverage and Capacity
analysis is supported.

Ability to define downlink\Uplink

overheads for different transmit antenna
configuration.

All 3GPP standards defined

configurations and settings are available
by default.

Configure

Interference Co-ordination (1/3)

Inter Cell Interference Co-ordination (ICIC) schemes can be enabled on each Carrier.
Frequency Reuse-1 with Prioritization
Each sector divides the available Bandwidth into prioritized (one third) and nonprioritized (two third) sections

Prioritized spectrum is used more often than non-prioritized by each sector in order to
concentrate the interference that it causes to other sectors

Configure

Interference Co-ordination (2/3)

Soft Frequency Reuse
Introduction of Power difference between the prioritized and non-prioritized spectrum
which divides the sector into an inner and an outer region

User in the inner region can be reached with reduced power, i.e. Cell Centre Users
(CCU) than the users in the outer region i.e. Cell Edge Users (CEU)

CCU are assigned frequency Reuse-1 while CEU employ Reuse-3

Configure

Interference Co-ordination (3/3)

Reuse Partitioning
Similar to Soft Frequency Reuse however it also divides the Channel Bandwidth into
two part; one part using high power than the other

Low-power part is the same in all sectors while the high-power part is divided between
sectors so that each sector gets one third of the high-power spectrum

Hence, low-power part employs frequency Reuse-1 while high-power part is

configured with a frequency Reuse-3

Configure

Bearers
In ASSET, each LTE Bearer represent a
single Modulation format and Channel
coding rate.

All LTE specific Modulation formats (BPSK,

QPSK, 16QAM and 64 QAM) and Channel
coding Rates are supported.

Adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) is

supported by defining multiple bearers.

AMC allows the network to adjust the

modulation and coding scheme based on
channel quality indicators (CQIs).

Users can define multiple LTE Bearers and

their corresponding SINR requirements.

Mobility is modelled using SINR

Adjustments for various speed ranges.
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Configure

Services
All Service types, e.g. Voice and data
(VoIP, audio\video streaming, etc.) can
be modelled.

Each service is associated with a QoS

Class Identifier (QCI) defining the service
priority and influencing radio resource
management.

Network capacity analysis is performed

by the user defined service rate and
corresponding activity factors.

Services can be supported over one or

multiple carriers.

Each carrier can support specific bearers.

Bearers can be prioritised.
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Configure

Terminals
Terminal types define the geographical
distribution of the terminal over different
clutters, vectors and polygons.

LTE RF parameters are also defined on

the terminal type e.g.

TX power, Received Reference Signal

Strength

Antenna gain, Noise figure, Body loss

Modulation schemes, CQIs
MIMO Settings

Users can also model directional

antennas by associating antenna
patterns to each terminal type.

Configure

Define

Build

Analyse

Build

eNodeB Templates Creation

eNodeB templates can be created
for easy addition of configured
nodes.

Once a template has been

created, the user can easily add
LTE eNodeBs to the network using
the 2D View or the Site Database.

A user can quickly display a

cell/node configuration in the Site
Database by selecting it in the 2D
View.

Alternatively, a user can quickly

modify a cell/node parameter
configuration while in the 2D
View using the Site Quick Edit
feature.
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Build

eNodeB Configuration (1/2)

ASSETs principle strength is the Site Database which can
present multiple (Logical, Physical, Location and Network)
views of the same network site data.

Logical view organises the data by PLMN, enabling to

differentiate between the Shared and Unshared
networks of multi-operators.

Multiple Technology networks can be created by

Operators and all major network elements can be added
into the site database (e.g. eNodeB, WMSC, RNC, NodeB,
MSC, BSC, Sites).

In addition to CN\EPC shared networks, ASSET provides

the flexibility to share simply at the Site level (eNodeB,
NodeB, etc.) or even the antenna sharing.

Build

eNodeB Configuration (2/2)

In ASSET, each eNodeB (site)
supports multiple sectors.

Each sector supports a single

carrier (Channel Bandwidth) and a
single frame structure (FDD\TDD).

Key parameters for each sector

will include:

Transmit powers and EPREs

for reference signal (Pilot),
shared channel (traffic) and
other channels

Receiver noise figure and

sensitivity

PCID Schemas and IDs

Cell Load parameters-DL
Traffic Load and Mean UL
Noise Rise
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Build

Traffic Spreading
Traffic density maps can be created
based on clutter, vectors, polygons
and points.
Live traffic can be imported from
the network.
Vector traffic maps of population
data can also be imported into the
tool.
Users can also combine live data
and population data with traffic
data generated from within the
tool.
Traffic maps are saved in ASSETs
*.tri/*.trr raster format.

Build

Configure

Analyse

Define

Analyse

Monte Carlo Simulator

Coverage and capacity of the LTE network
can be analyzed by using the Monte Carlo
Simulator.

Simulator generates a number of network

snapshots and results are averaged across
all snapshots. Each snapshot represents:

a time averaged picture of the network

and a specific spatial distribution of the
terminals

Snapshots actually provide a measure of

the system load for the given distribution
of terminals, i.e.

Total DL TX Power and Total UL

interfering power of each sector

Total DL and UL throughput on each

sector
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Analyse

Simulation Output Arrays

Simulator generates a number of different
outputs in the form of reports and arrays
to analyse the performance and validity of
network.

Output arrays include:

UL\DL coverage and interference arrays
UL \DL bearer coverage arrays
UL \DL throughput coverage arrays

Arrays are available for each combination

of terminals, carriers, services and bearers.

Users can generate statistic for each of

these arrays,

Compound array functionality allow the

users to create customized arrays based on
simulator output existing arrays.
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Analyse

Simulation Output Reports

Output reports provide an overview of the
performance of the network and indicate any
coverage or capacity constraints.

Individual reports are generated for each service,

e.g.

Composite report
Failure report
Throughput report
UL\DL performance reports

Reports can be saved in different file formats.

Analyse

Interactive Result Visualisation

Interactive tools are also available for
the better visualisation of the simulation
results on the 2D View.

The user can also restrict analysis to a

vector (e.g. Simulate performance on a
road, tunnel or individual points of
interest, etc.).

Statistical reports can be generated for

the output arrays per cell, clutter or per
population or traffic data and be
restricted to single vectors (e.g.
Polygons, points, etc.).

Build

Analyse

Plan

Define

Configure

Plan

Cell ID Planner
LTE Cell Identities (ID) are grouped into 168
unique ID groups (0-167), each group
containing 3 unique ID codes (0-2).

ASSET allows the user to automatic plan Cell

IDs with a sophisticated (fixed\automatic)
reuse distance algorithm; using multiple
filters\schemas and Neighbour relations.

Each filter can be assigned a different Cell ID

schema.

Neighbour relations (till 4th order) can be

considered during Cell ID planning.

In addition to fixed reuse distance method,

user can employ automatic distance criteria
which is ideally suited for areas containing
different site densities.
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Plan

Automatic Frequency Planner

ASSET incorporates an Automatic
Frequency Planner (AFP) for the
optimum assignment of carriers
(Channel Bandwidths) to LTE sectors.

In addition to a simple distance based

algorithm, AFP uses the Interference
matrix for minimizing inter-cell
interference.

Carrier assignments and conflicts can be

visualized and further analyzed in an
enhanced reporting engine to determine
the quality of produced frequency plan.

Plan

Neighbour Planner
ASSET incorporates an
Automatic Neighbour Planning
(ANP) tool which allows planner
to create intra and inter
technology neighbours for GSM,
UMTS, WiMAX and LTE.

Planning can be based on

predictions or measurement
data.

ANP algorithm is well proven

and being used by numerous
Network Operators.

Manual Neighbour relationships

can be created through the site
database or the 2D-View.
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PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MATERIAL IS PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL, AND IS INTENDED ONLY FOR THE USE OF THE INDIVIDUAL TO WHOM IT IS ADDRESSED AND OTHERS WHO
HAVE BEEN SPECIFICALLY AUTHORIZED TO RECEIVE IT. IF YOU ARE NOT THE INTENDED RECIPIENT, YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT ANY DISSEMINATION, DISTRIBUTION OR COPYING OF THIS MATERIAL IS STRICTLY
PROHIBITED. IF YOU HAVE RECEIVED THIS MATERIAL IN ERROR, PLEASE DESTROY IT IMMEDIATELY.