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LTE Radio Planning Using Atoll Radio Planning and Optimization Software

Article  in  International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) · October 2014

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 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN (Online): 2319-7064
Impact Factor (2012): 3.358

LTE Radio Planning Using Atoll Radio Planning

and Optimization Software
Marwa Elbagir Mohammed1, Khalid Hamid Bilal2
1, 2
Faculty of Engineering, EL- Neelain University, Khartoum, Sudan

Abstract: Long Term Evolution (LTE) is most enhanced Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) technology. LTE is the standard in the
mobile network technology tree that previously realized the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA technologies. LTE is expected to ensure
3GPP’s competitive edge over other cellular technologies. As standardization work of LTE is approaching the end line, it’s high time to
go for efficient radio network planning guideline for LTE. In LTE just like other cellular technologies, initial planning is normally
guided by various industries and operators at their own discretion. They aren’t likely to open their advancements and findings. As a
result, going on with LTE radio network planning perspective is a well-chosen challenge and a certain hot topic in the current research
area. In this work, a detailed LTE radio network planning i.e. capacity and coverage analysis has been performed in order to prepare a
radio planning guideline considering possible network implementation in the density in Khartoum city.

Keywords: LTE, Radio Network Planning, Planning Tool, Coverage Prediction, Traffic Map.

1. Introduction communication have been studied. The success of GSM

network depends on its three factors: coverage, capacity and
Long Term Evolution (LTE) has engaged the attention of quality. Capacity is based on an assessment of dropped calls
wireless operators, investors, and industry watchers around and congestion that has been removed by proper
the world in the late years. LTE was initiated by 3GPP, to optimization. Quality has been improved by eliminating
maintain its competitive edge in the world of mobile interference from both external and internal sources.
networks in the future; it represents the first generation of
cellular networks to be based on a flat IP architecture. The A drive test was performed to asses capacity and coverage.
essential part of any system to be deployed is the planning The quality of the radio network depends on its coverage,
operation, because the existence of all activities is related to capacity and frequency allocation. Most severe problems in
its existence. The radio network planning process is a radio network can be attributed to signal interference,
designed to maximize the network coverage, whilst at the dropped calls and the amount of congestion that
same time providing the desired capacity [1]. optimization has removed. The criteria that were discussed
in the radio planning procedure were met and the needed
2. Problem Statement KPI values were attained on completion of the process. As a
result, dropped calls, handover, interference and RX levels
The cellular industry is growing. Rapid increase in the were all improved.
demand for data services has pushed wireless operators to
invest in new technologies. Operators capitalize a major In [3] Macro-cellular (outdoor) to indoor coverage is a
portion of their money in their network infrastructure to be natural inexpensive way of providing network coverage
able to offer new services with high quality and lower rates. inside the buildings. However, it does not guarantee
To survive in such a competitive market, they look for sufficient link quality required for optimal HSDPA
network planning tools which can design an optimized operation. On the contrary, deploying a dedicated indoor
network with low cost. Furthermore, an optimized network system may be far too expensive from an operator’s point of
requires less maintenance cost, meaning more saving. The view. In this thesis, the concept is laid for the understanding
primary goal of LTE network planning tools is to provide an of indoor radio wave propagation in a campus building
optimum topology for the network. environment which could be used to plan and improve
outdoor-to-indoor UMTS/HSDPA radio propagation
performance. It will be shown that indoor range
3. Research Objectives Performance depends not only on the transmit power of an
indoor antenna, but also on the product’s response to
The main objective of this thesis is to develop automatic multipath and obstructions in the environment along the
planning tools based on Exact and approximate algorithms radio propagation path. An extensive measurement
in order to solve the planning problem of 4G with high campaign will be executed in different indoor environments
coverage and high Quality of Service. analogous to easy, medium and hard radio conditions.
However The number of mobile broadband users are
4. Literature Review increasing at an accelerated pace and in the current
competitive cellular market, extensive coverage, capacity
In [2], coverage planning in GSM networks as well as and quality of service have become key factors in increasing
capacity and frequency planning has been studied. Various end-user base.
signal interruptions and the necessary steps to remove those
interruptions in order to maintain signal quality in mobile

Volume 3 Issue 10, October 2014

www.ijsr.net
Paper ID: OCT1477 1460
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN (Online): 2319-7064
Impact Factor (2012): 3.358
In [4] focuses on designing automatic planning tools for the
planning problem of 3rd Generation (3G) Universal Mobile
Telecommunication System (UMTS) all-IP Release 4
networks. and A new mathematical model for the design
problem of such architecture was proposed. The main
advantage of the proposed model is to incorporate a realistic
traffic profile taken from real live networks. Two
approximate algorithms based on the local search and tabu
search principles are adopted to solve the problem.
Numerical results show that “good” solutions are found with
the proposed heuristics. Results demonstrate that the local
search algorithm produces solutions that are, on average, at
4.98% of the optimal solution, and in the worst case at
11.31% of the optimal solution. Better solutions are obtained
using the tabu search algorithm. Indeed, tabu search is able
to provide solutions with an average gap of 2.82% and a
maximum gap of 7.51% from the optimal solution.

In [5] the LTE system capacity and coverage are

investigated and a model is proposed on the base of the
Release 8 of 3GPP LTE standards. After that, the frequency
planning of LTE is also studied. The results cover the
interference limited coverage calculation, the traffic capacity
calculation and radio frequency assignment. The
implementation is achieved on the WRAP software platform
for the LTE Radio Planning. the capacity of the LTE
network is depicted with the indicators of average
transmission data rate, peak transmission data rate and the Figure 1: Flow chart of Project Work
subscriber’s numbers supported by the system. The coverage
of the LTE system is also calculated on the base of Base 6. Radio Network Planning
Station parameters and different propagation models. One of
the frequency allocation schemes of LTE, SFR, is also Network planning is a complicated process consisting of
described to mitigate the inter-carrier interference (ICI). This several phases. The final target for the network planning
work gives a macroscopic dimension and valuable process is to define the network design, which is then built
estimation of the LTE system. The theoretical work will as a cellular network. The network design can be an
later be implemented in WRAP software and by using extension of the existing LTE network or a new network to
WRAP’s capacity calculation and evaluation tools the be launched. Environmental factors also greatly affect
estimation and optimization of an LTE network can be network planning. Radio Network Planning contains number
performed. of phases:
• Initial phase-which includes collection of pre-planning
5. Methodology information and starting network dimensioning i.e. Link
Budget preparation, coverage and capacity calculation by
Dimensioning is the initial phase of network planning. It running simulations.
provides the first estimate of the radio network element • Nominal and detailed planning- which includes selection
count as well as the capacity of those elements. and use of radio planning tool. This step involves
Dimensioning tool should be accurate enough to provide propagation model tuning, defining thresholds from Link
results with an acceptable level of accuracy, when loaded budget, creating detailed radio plan based on the
with expected traffic profile and subscriber base [6][7]. thresholds, checking network capacity against more
Dimensioning has two phases; coverage planning phase and detailed traffic estimates, Configuration planning, Site
capacity planning phase. In this paper using Atoll radio surveys, Site pre-validation and validation, eNode B
planning and optimaization software to provide the number parameter planning.
of sites required in the capacity planning phase. • Defining KPIs and Parameter Planning- using eNode B
system parameters and counters, defining performance
After choosing the network deployment parameters, KPIs and its target values based on vendor’s promise,
dimensioning has two phases capacity planning and verification of the KPIs and target values using planning
coverage planning to estimate the number of sites needed, and dimensioning tools nominally along with pre and
the two phases are independent from each other. This paper post-launch optimization[8]. But defining KPI and
focuses on capacity planning phase. The below flow chart parameter planning has been considered out of the scope
shows the methodology followed during this project of this paper.

Volume 3 Issue 10, October 2014

www.ijsr.net
Paper ID: OCT1477 1461
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN (Online): 2319-7064
Impact Factor (2012): 3.358
6.1 Atoll planning tool Statistical for Selected Zone
• Total Surface 14.000 ��2
Atoll Planning Tool was used in this research; Atoll is an 23,819,996,75
• Population (inhab)/��23,819,996,75
open, scalable, and flexible multi-technology
technology network design • Hexagon radius (m) R = 350
and optimization platform that supports. Wireless operators
throughout the network lifecycle, from initial design to LTE Planning Parameters
densification and optimization. • Propagation Model : Okumura –Hata
• Antenna : 65deg 18dBi 4Tilt 2100MHz
6.2 Atoll General Features • Hight(m) = 30
• Hexagon Area = 2.6 R
1) Multi technology tool Propagation Model
Dedicated Project Templates & Propagation Models for Okumura – Hata was used in this planning
all supported technology Name : Urban (medium-small
small city)
2) User friendly GUI • Lu = 69.55 + 26.16 log f -13.82
- log Hb+ (44.9-6.55 log
• Windows based tools Hb–0 Hb)log d
• Easy to export/ import all required data (1.56 log f –0.8)
• A(Hr) = (1.1 log f –0.7 )Hr–(1.56
• Simply support copy/paste all data • Total = Lu –a(Hr)
3) Flexibility in data management Where:
Display, Sorts & Filter Lu = Median path loss. Unit: Decibel (dB)
4) Working systems f = Frequency of Transmission. Unit: Megahertz (MHz)
Stand Alone .atl documents. [9] Hb= Base Station Antenna effective height. Unit: Meter (m)
d = Link distance. Unit: Kilometer (km)
7. Simulation Steps and Results Disscusion Hr= Mobile Station Antenna effective height. Unit: Meter
(m)
Khartoum is the capital of Sudan. Efficient radio network a(Hr) = Mobile station Antenna height correction factor as
planning is obviously a big challenge here with the optimal described in the Hata Model for Urban Areas. Shown in
utilization of limited resources. In this part of the work, figure 4 below:
coverage analysis-link level simulation result along with link
budget preparation and capacity analysis
analysis-system level
simulation have been performed . As a result, it can be
included for the complete part of Khartoum city radio
planning performing the simulations with planning tool like
Atoll.
• Open project or create a new one Import Map (Khartoum
City)

Figure 4: Okumura – Hata formulas

• LTE Predication
Coverage predictions have been performed by: transmitter,
signal level, downlink throughput and Channel to
Interference plus Noise Ratio (CINR). Coverage prediction
properties: fig7 by signal level, fig 8 channel throughput
(DL), coverage prediction results have been shown in Fig 5
Figure 2: Import map in atoll planning tool to Fig 9.

• Selected zone Statistical

Figure 3: zone statistical

Figure 5: coverage by transmitter

Volume 3 Issue 10, October 2014

www.ijsr.net
Paper ID: OCT1477 1462
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN (Online): 2319-7064
Impact Factor (2012): 3.358

Figure 10 (a): The point analysis of sit 6-1

Figure 6: coverage by signal levels.

Figure 10 (b): The geographic

aphic profile of the site 6 – 1

Figure7: histogram based on covered areas

Figure 10 (c): the signal analysis involving PBCH,

Downlink and Uplink parameters

Analyzing the coverage prediction results with the placed

eNodeB with respect to [10 10] it is quite evident that the
planned network provides a satisfactory coverage. Again,
Figure 8: coverage by throughput DL evaluation of traffic map after simulation makes it clear that
subscribers mostly remain connected at both UL & DL
which also indicates a very positive sign for the planned
network. Performance analysis with point analysis tool
strengthens the base behind the planned network as an
effective one.

9. Conclusion and Future Work

The success of LTE network depends on its three factors:
coverage, capacity and quality. Capacity is based on an
assessment of dropped calls and congestion that has been
Figure 9: coverage by throughput UL removed by proper optimization. Quality has been improved
by eliminating interference from both external and internal
8. Performance Analysis of the Planned sources. Radio planning stage with Atoll taking Khartoum
Network digital map as input. In detail Atoll simulations have been
run on Khartoum digital map containing both coverage
Using point analysis tool of Atoll site 6-11 was chosen from predictions and traffic simulations. Again, performance
the Khartoum map along with a receiver to analyze the cell evaluation has been done using point analysis tool. In future
edge throughput scenario and all other uplink and downlink work must be provided research for improvement of LTE
parameters. The point analysis results appeared as the planning uses software and compare between some places.
following shown in Fig 10(a). Fig.100 (b): shows the
geographic profile of the site 6 - 1, fig 10((c): gives the signal 10. Acknowledgement
analysis involving PBCH, Downlink and Uplink parameters
of the adjacent. All praises to almighty Allah, whose enormous blessings
give me strength and make me able to complete this thesis. I
thank my honorable supervisor Dr. Khalid Hamid for his
Volume 3 Issue 10, October 2014
www.ijsr.net
Paper ID: OCT1477 1463
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN (Online): 2319-7064
Impact Factor (2012): 3.358
kind support, and also honorable Dr. Amin Babikr for
guidance throughout

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