Politecnico di Milano

Advanced Network Technologies Laboratory

1
From Pre-Planned to Self-Organizing
and Green Wireless Networks
Antonio Capone
The 10th INFORMS Telecommunications
Conference

Concordia University, May 5 - 7, 2010
Disclaimer:
Engineers and Mathematicians
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Picture borrowed from:
A. Eisenbltter, H.-F. Geerdes, Wireless Network Design: Solution-oriented
Modeling And Mathematical Optimization, IEEE Wireless Communications, December 2006
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Summary
Wireless networks
Radio planning evolution (2G and 3G)
Coverage Planning
Capacity Planning
Self-organizing networks (4G)
Complexity of network management
4G systems (LTE)
Concept of SON
Dynamic resource management
Wireless Green networks
Energy consumption
Green energy management
Conclusion





Phones

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Mobile phones
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Cellular subscribers vs fixed
lines
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0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
1990 1995 2000 2005 2007 2010
Cellular
Subscribers
Telephone Lines
Source: www.etforecasts.com
Mobile vs fixed vs
internet
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60 mobile subscribers per 100 inhabitants
19 fixed lines per 100 inhabitants
23 internet users per 100 inhabitants
9 broadband users per 100 inhabitants
Source: ITU
Data: 2008
Mobile subscribers by
country
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Radio planning
The deployment of mobile radio networks
required so far HUGE investments
The extension of existing network, new data
services, and new technologies are continuing
to require a lot of money
This has stimulated mobile operators to use
automatic tools for the design and the
optimization of their networks
In the last ~15 years the research community
has proposed a large number of approaches for
designing and optimizing wireless access
networks (more than 16000 results in Google
Scholar)

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Network planning tools
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Main Planning
Tools:
Aircom Asset
Mentum Planet
Atoll FORSK
ATDI
WinProp
EDX Signal Pro
CelPlan
Siradel
Pathloss
Main Optimization
Engines
Actix
Capesso
What is radio planning?
The basic decisions that must be taken during
the radio planning phase are:
Where to install base stations (or access points,
depending on the technology)
How to configure base stations (antenna type,
height, sectors orientation, tilt, maximum power,
device capacity, etc.)

X
X
X X
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What is radio planning?
This is, however, not enough
Multiple access techniques are used to define
communication channels on the available radio
spectrum




Radio resources for wireless systems are limited
and must be reused in different areas (cells)
Resource reuse generates interference


FDMA
TDMA
CDMA
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Interference
Interference is the key parameter that drives
network planning and optimization processes
Interference can be tolerated (good
communication quality) if the Signal-to-
Interference and Noise Ratio (SINR) is high
enough


SIR constraint limits the number of simultaneous
communications per cells, i.e. the system
capacity
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GOAL:
minimize costs
maximize covered traffic
q o + +
=
in out
rec
I I
P
SF SINR
2G Planning
FDMA/TDMA cellular systems adopt a two phases radio
planning
Coverage planning
Capacity planning (frequency assignment)
Coverage planning:
Select where to install base stations
Select antenna configurations
s.t. constraints on signal level in the area
Capacity planning:
Define which radio resources can be used by each
cell
s.t. SINR (quality) constraints
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Coverage Planning
Many different models have been proposed for
the coverage planning
Basically all of them are based on the classical
set covering problem
With several specific features that have been
added depending on technology and service mix
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Objective function:
total network cost
Full coverage constraints
One configuration per site
Integrality constraints
Coverage Planning
Example: Cell overlap
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Note that:
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by a same BS
Cell overlap may be required
for mobility management
Overlap can negatively affect
capacity (e.g. in WLANs)

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Capacity planning
(aka frequency assignment)
After coverage planning,
capacity planning is in charge
of defining which radio
resources can be used by
each cell
The amount of resources
(frequencies) assigned to cells
determines system capacity
Frequencies can be reused,
but SINR (quality) constraints
must be enforced
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Frequency assignment
Maximizing the simultaneous
transmission with SINR
constraints is a key problem is
all wireless networks
i
j
SINR
ij
>t
However, the most popular
models for frequency
assignment have been based
on compatibility graphs
Frequency assignment problems
are modeled as variants of the
graph coloring problems

i
j
c
ij

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Frequency assignment
Since Graph based models do not consider
SINR constrains explicitly the cumulative effect
of interference is not accouter for

Compatible?
Minimum Interference
Frequency Assignment
Problem (MI-FAP) and
its variants models
directly interference
effect

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3G Planning
3rd Generation Systems are based on W-CDMA
(UMTS)
Two-phases approach not suitable because:
Channels are shared and there is no frequency
planning for CDMA
Coverage depends on SINR values
Joint coverage and capacity planning
SINR constraints make the problem a
generalization of the capacitated facility
location problems

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Network management &
control
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Network configuration and optimization is becoming
far too complex for mobile operators
4G Long Term Evolution
The need to plan, configure, manage a new
wireless network from scratch
with up to 10 times more base stations
and many more parameters to set
simply worries mobile operators
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4G Long Term Evolution
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LTE architecture
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eNB
MME / S-GW MME / S-GW
eNB
eNB
S
1
S
1
S
1
S
1
X2
X
2
X
2
E-UTRAN
The radio architecture
of LTE is more complex
Base stations (eNodeB)
are connected also
among them (mesh
topology)
and they have
computation capability
to perform advances
functions
The presence of
femto-cells can
make the network
management even
more complicated
LTE radio interface
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More similar to 2G than to 3G
Self Organizing Network
(SON)
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Self Planning
Self Configuration
Self Optimization
and Self Tuning
Self Testing and
Self Healing
Self Mantenance
Performance
Improvement
Cost reduction
self-organizing network is a cellular network in
which the tasks of configuring, operating, and
optimizing are largely automated.
Self Organizing Network
(SON)
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Centralized
Architecture
Distributed
Architecture
Self Organizing Network
(SON)
Most of the SON features are aimed at simplifying
preoperational and operational procedures
HW configuration
SW installation and configuration
Radio basic parameters
Transport parameters
Etc.
However, the most interesting issues from our
perspective are related to the configuration and
management of radio resources
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Automatic
carrier
selection
Fractional reuse
Load balancing
Dynamic assignment
The idea of self-configuring and self-optimizing
wireless network is not new!
Several Dynamic Channel Assignment (DCA)
schemes have been proposed and analyzed for 2G
Channel/frequency assigned on demand based on
compatibility or interference constraints
but they have never been used in real networks

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Resource assignment in LTE
LTE-advanced offers several instruments
to make configuration and dynamic
management of radio resources possible
eNBs can make measurements over the
radio interface before first resource
configuration

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User terminals can provide
measurements to eNBs
during system operation
to dynamically select
resources

Resource assignment in LTE
Defining both centralized and distributed
self-configuration and self-optimization
models and algorithms for LTE is still an
open problem
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Automatic carrier selection
Channel assignment based
on position in the cell
(fractional reuse)
Load balancing among cells
forcing handover
Etc.
Green Wireless Networks
In addition to configuration, energy
consumption of wireless network is another
issue that concerns of operators
The power consumption of cellular networks
infrastructure (base stations and core network)
doubles every 4-5 years - to 60 TWh in 2008
Energy consumption of mobile telephony
operators in Italy is 0,7% of total national
electric consumption, 55% of whole
communications sector, with bills of more than
300M per year
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Energy consumption
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Radio access
and core
network
Base
Stations
80%
Mobile
Stations
Network
90%
User
Terminals
10%
Mobile
Network
20%
Energy consumption
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Traffic load
Wireless access networks are dimensioned for
estimated peak demand using dense layers of
cell coverage
Traffic varies during the day
Energy consumption is almost constant
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Day 1 Day 2 Day 3
T
r
a
f
f
i
c

L
o
a
d

Network capacity
Energy Savings
Significant energy savings can be achieved if
parts or all components of some wireless
network devices are powered off when traffic is
low, and powered on based on the volume and
location of user demand
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Energy Savings
It is also possible to partially switch
off internal modules of base stations
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Base Station
Cabinet
TRXs
Air
Conditioner
Green Network Management
Switching on and off network
elements based on traffic level
Re-planning of the network based on
different traffic scenarios
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Green Network Management
Radio Planning models can be re-used
But some additional features need to be
modeled like:
Coverage and capacity constraints
Cost of network reconfiguration
Performance Energy trade off
Etc.
Energy saving is one of the issues that
is being considered as part of Self
Organizing Network by standardization
bodies and manufacturers

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Conclusion
The need to plan and manage new
generation wireless network in a cost
effective way is even more acute now than
in the past
Network complexity is increasing
Network re-planning is required more
often also for energy saving
New design and management approaches
are required
Dont let engineers play alone with these
new challenging problems

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Politecnico di Milano
Advanced Network Technologies Laboratory
From Pre-Planned to Self-Organizing
and Green Wireless Networks
Antonio Capone