LTE Network Planning and Optimization

Beneyam Berehanu (PhD)

December 2021
Contents
1. LTE performance
2. LTE planning targets and
product survey
3. LTE dimensioning
4. LTE detailed planning and
optimization
LTE Downlink spectral efficiency vs
HSDPA
Compared to HSPA Release 6:
– OFDM with freq.domain equalization +20...70%
– MIMO (2x2) +20%
(compared to single antenna BS tx and 2-rx terminal)
– Frequency domain scheduling +40%
(not possible in CDMA based system)
– Inter-cell interference +10%
rejection combining or cancellation
(also possible in HSPA but better
performance in OFDM solution)
– Total gain: up to 3.1x

Remark: These numbers depend on parameter selections in performance

evaluation, defined reference performance as well as selected scheduling
approach etc => total gain may greatly vary in different cases.
LTE downlink peak data rate
LTE uplink peak data rate
R8 terminal categories

6
LTE downlink spectral efficiency under
fading

7
Downlink average cell and
cell-edge spectral efficiency
simulation results in the
macro case 1, case 3
and micro test deployment
scenarios

8
Uplink spectral efficiency

9
Relative spectral efficiency compared
to 10MHz bandwidth in macro cells

10
Please analyze and digest performance
of LTE for the various scenarios from
reference books and related articles

11
Contents
1. LTE performance
2. LTE planning targets and
product survey
3. LTE dimensioning
4. LTE planning and
optimization
Capacity requirements/targets
❖ Defined based on at least:
➢ Forecasted/required number of LTE subscribers/users
➢ Forecasted/required traffic demand matrix based on data services
❖ Important to articulate capacity in spatial and temporal domain
❖ Both cell capacity and network capacity demand need to be set.

Think on:
How much is satisfactory average per user data rate demand(s) for
Ethiopian LTE users?
How do you explain the spatial distribution of the LTE users and their
data rate demand?
How do you explain the temporal distribution of the LTE users and
their data rate demand?
Coverage requirements/targets
❖ What is very important in data service coverage is coverage of a given
minimum required data rate for the service
❖ In a given location and time:
➢ If the minimum required data rate is achieved we are under service
➢ If the minimum required data rate is not achieved we are in outage

Think on:
For LTE service, with what minimum data rate we say we are
under LTE coverage?
QoS requirements/targets

15
Other requirements/targets
❖Available carriers/bandwidths
❖Already decided product specifications
➢ Base stations
➢ Antennas
❖UE categories and capabilities
➢ UE adoption trend
❖Site locations
❖Financial limitations
❖Future plans
❖Deployment strategy

Note planning targets should be agreed being

defined well in prioritized manner.

16
Example eNodeB products

Ericsson 6201 multi-standard

macro base station, indoor
installation

Nokia macro base station,

outdoor wall installation
‘High power’ pico eNodeB
• Ericsson indoor pico (6401), multistandard
• TX output power: 1W
• http://www.ericsson.com/ourportfolio/prod
ucts/rbs-6401

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Panel antenna example: Kathrein 742
215
• Kathrein multi-band dual-polarization
panel antenna (model 742 215)
• Typical macrocell eNodeB antenna
– Round 18dBi antenna gain
– Support 2100MHz and 800MHz bands
• Let us look this antenna in more details
and compare antenna measurements
with the general 3GPP modeling used
in simulations (see antenna slides for
more details)

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‘Low power’ Femto base stations

Vodafone 3G femto
Nokia 3G femto base station
base station
eNodeB transmission power
• For macro eNodeB typical value is 20W-60W (43dBm-48dBm)
– 20W on 5MHz band (as in WCDMA/HSPA)
– 40W on 10MHz band (most usual test case for Rel.8 LTE)
– 60W on 20MHz band
• For micro eNodeB typical value is 5-10W (37dBm-40dBm)
• For pico eNodeB typical value is 100mW-2W (20dBm-33dBm)
– 3GPP limit for pico eNodeB TX power is 250mW (24dBm)
– There are many ‘pico’ products with TX power 250mW-2W
• For femto eNodeB TX power is limited to 100mW (20dBm)
– Typical values are some tens of milliwatts
Contents
1. LTE performance
2. LTE planning targets and
product survey
3. LTE dimensioning
4. LTE detailed planning and
optimization
 Network planning consists of 3 phases:

Network Planning - Dimensioning, detailed planning and optimization

Our focus area Dimensioning Note: We omit core network

150

140

130
EIRP 58dB
Path Loss [dB]
120

110
+ Margins 23dB
Sensitivity -100dB
1000 x 5000 x
100

90
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4
Allowed PL 135 dB
Distance from BS [km]

Area and propagation information Radio Link budget # Network elements

Detailed planning
TX power 43dBi
Antennas 2
Input from Antenna tilt 5o
dimensioning Parameter x, y, z

Network planning tools BS + RS Configurations and

System simulations topology plan

Optimization

+
Operating network
(drive tests, monitoring) Optimized system
Example: RLB in LTE cell coverage
estimation
User on the distance where
minimum required rate can be
provided – assuming a certain
LTE eNodeB
load.
with 3-sector
transmission

Example: We require that user

should reach 1Mbit/s data rate when
10% of the cell resources are
allocated for him/her.
Question: How far from eNodeB
user can be? This distance gives cell
range under above constraint
The RLB principle
• TX/RX parameters depend on
TX/RX parameters
the network deployment
Data rate requirement
User resource allocation
– Equipments (eNodeB, UE,
antennas), site properties
• Data rate requirement
– Depends on the service
Link budget
– Data rate can be mapped to
required signal to interference
and noise ratio (SINR)
Allowed propagation loss • User resource allocation
– Traffic expectations
Path loss model • Path loss model
– Environment/clutter type

System range

25
3.1 LTE Downlink Radio Link Budget
LTE Downlink RLB
• In the following we
go through this LTE
downlink radio link
budget in details
• This is a snapshot
from excel tool that
is given for
participants
• There will be some
solved examples
discussed later.

27
Resource allocation and rate
requirements

Parameter Comment
Number of This is estimated by assuming the operation bandwidth
PRBs and number of users served at the same time. In case of
10MHz band we have 50 resource blocks (48 for data).
Then 10PRB takes 10/48 of all resources
Data rate In this case we assume 2Mbits/s target rate
Remark on rate requirement
• In case of constant bit rate service (like real time video)
the 2Mbits/s requirement defines how much resources
user continuously employs
• In usual case (e.g. web browsing, file downloading,
streaming video) the data transfer happens in bursts so
instantaneous rate can be high while there are time gaps
between transmissions for user (time multiplexing of
users)
• Example: If user on cell edge download 1 Mbit file
– (s)he needs round 0.1 seconds for all 48 PRBs OR
– (s)he is given 5PRBs for 1 second time period
– Other options – of course – are possible as well
Transmission characteristics

Parameter Comment
eNodeB TX Typical value is 20W-60W (43dBm-48dBm)
power 20W on 5MHz band (as in WCDMA/HSPA)
40W on 10MHz band (most usual test case for Rel.8 LTE)
60W on 20MHz band
Antenna gain Discussed later in more details. Typical 1.3 m high panel
antenna at 2 GHz band gives 18 dBi gain in main direction
Cable loss Loss between the eNodeB antenna and the low noise
amplifier. The cable loss value depends on the cable length,
cable type and frequency band.
EIRP EIRP = TX power + antenna gain – cable loss
UE receiver (1/2)

Parameter Comment
UE Noise NF measures of degradation of the SNR by the components in
Figure (NF) the RF receiver chain, product specific. Typical values: 6-11dB

Thermal Thermal noise = Boltzmann constant x T (Kelvin) x Effective

Noise bandwidth. Here
Boltzmann constant = 1.38 x 10^(-23) J/K (J = Ws)
Reference temperature 20 Celsius = 290 Kelvin
Effective bandwidth = Number of PRB’s x 180kHz
Receiver Receiver noise floor = UE NF + Thermal noise
Noise Floor
 PHICH = Physical HARQ Indicator Channel
UE receiver (2/2) PBCH = Physical Broadcast Channel
PDCCH = Physical DL Control Channel

Parameter Comment
SINR Required Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio depends
on the data rate, number of PRBs and link efficiency. We
consider this in more details later in this slide set
Receiver sensitivity Minimum required power in receiver required to detect
the signal. Receiver sensitivity = Receiver Noise Floor +
SINR
Control channel Control channel overhead includes the overhead from
overhead reference signals, PBCH, PDCCH and PHICH. 5%-25%
leads to 1dB-4dB overhead.
RX antenna gain Depends on the receiver antenna, usually 0dBi for
handheld terminals
Margins and losses

Parameter Comment
Body loss Body loss is typically included for voice link budget where
the terminal is held close to the user’s head. 3-5dB for
voice.
Shadowing loss Depends on the propagation environment. Typical values:
4-7dB. Will be discussed later in more details.
Interference Interference margin accounts for the increase in the
margin terminal noise level caused by the other cell interference.
If we assume a minimum G-factor of −4 dB, that
corresponds to 5.5dB IM (10*log10(1+10^(4/10)) = 5.5
dB). Typical values for IM: 3dB – 8dB.
Indoor penetration Depends on the building types. In urban area 20dB, in
loss suburban/rural area with light buildings 10dB.
Allowed propagation loss
APL = PTX + GA( NodeB) - LCable + GA(UE ) - min { PRX }
- M SF - M I
- LC - Lbody - LPenetration
3.2 DL Link Budget Examples
Urban area example (DL)
✓ Assume the link budget parameters below, 10MHz band, 2GHz carrier, 35 meter base
stationRadio
antennaCommunication
height and 1.5 meter UE height.
Systems II, Exercise 3, 2014
✓ Compute the coverage in case of large city for 2Mbps service when eNodeB allocates
4 PRBs for the user (12 users/cell served simultaneously).
– What happens for the service coverage if eNodeB can allocate all available 48 PRBs for this user (target
Problem 1. LTE downlink RLB (excel in Noppa): Assume the following link bu
rate being the same 2 Mbps)?
–
2.1GHz carrier, 25 meter base station antenna height and 1.5 meter UE height:
Increase the user rate 5Mbps and solve problem again

Parameter Value
BS TX power 40W
BS antenna gain 18dBi
BS cable loss 2dB
UE noise figure 7dB
Interference margin 4dB
RX antenna gain 0dBi
RX body loss 0dB
Control channel overhead 1dB
Indoor penetration loss 20dB
Shadow fading margin 7dB
BS antenna configuration 2x2/4x4 MIMO
(a) Compute the coverage (large city, rural area) for 5Mbps service when BS
Results ✓ Case 2Mbit/s and 4 PRB’s:
– Range in large city = 300 meters
– Range in suburban area = 680 meters
✓ Case 2Mbit/s and 48 PRB’s:
– Range in large city = 880 meters
– Range in suburban area = 2.0 km
✓ Case 5Mbit/s and 4 PRB’s:
– Range in large city = 110 meters
– Range in suburban area = 240 meters
✓ Case 5Mbit/s and 48 PRB’s:
– Range in large city = 650 meters
– Range in suburban area = 1.5 km
Remark on range (1/3)
✓ Question: We increase the amount of radio resources 12
times (4 PRB ->48 PRB) but range is not increasing directly
proportionally. Why range increase is so small?
✓ Answer: If more PRB’s are used, less data needs to be
loaded per PRB => SE and accordingly SINR requirement
decreases
– In 2Mbit/s case SINR requirement decreases from 8.8dB to -7.5dB, the
difference being 16.3dB (see next slide)
– In 5Mbit/s case SINR requirement decreases from 24.2dB to -2.8dB, the
difference being 27.0dB (see next slide)
– This increases allowed propagation loss with same amounts. Yet, if distance
from/to eNodeB is short, then the path loss increases fast as a function of
distance (see next slides)
Remark on range (2/3)
10

9 LTE 2x2 MIMO maximum

spectral efficiency
8 (7.5bits/s/Hz)
SISO Spectral
Spectral efficiency [bits/s/Hz]

7
Efficiency
6

5
MIMO Spectral
efficiency (2x2)
4

3
Shannon AWGN
2 bound (SISO)

0
-10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26
SINR [dB]
Remark on range (3/3)

16.3dB

27.0dB
Other remarks

✓ In 4 PRB case we can serve 12 users at the same time while in 48 PRB
case we can serve only single user.
– Range extension by using more resources per user can take place only when
cell load is low.
✓ User usually needs 2-5Mbit/s rates just during very short time periods
– In e.g. web browsing/streaming video data is transferred in bursts.
– Thus, if instantaneous rate is high, user will have good use experience.
Rural area example
✓ In suburban area LTE is used on 800MHz to provide mobile broadband
for single houses
– Note: interference margin is decreased to 2dB.
✓ Assume three cases:
1. User is inside a light single house with 10dB indoor penetration loss
2. User is outside the house
3. User has a LTE based fixed wireless system containing directive antenna with 10dBi
gain (2dB cable loss) on the house rooftop (7 meters height). LTE receiver is
connected to indoor WiFi (through cable) that provides indoor connectivity.
✓ What is the maximum distance from eNodeB to receiver (= rooftop
antenna) for 2Mbit/s and 5Mbit/s services if receiver can apply 4/8
PRBs?
Illustration of connection optionseNodeB

Yagi antenna
(10dBi gain)
Antenna cable
(2dB loss)

LTE receiver
and WiFi
router

Outdoor UE

See, e.g.: http://www.smartcoverage.eu/4G-

antenna/4g-lte-aerial-antenna.html
Results
4 PRB case: 8 PRB case:
✓ Indoor user with 10dB penetration loss ✓ Indoor user with 10dB penetration loss
– 2Mbit/s, suburban area, range = 3.1km – 2Mbit/s, suburban area, range = 4.6km
– 5Mbit/s, suburban area, range = 1.1km – 5Mbit/s, suburban area, range = 2.6km
✓ Outdoor user with 0dB penetration loss ✓ Outdoor user with 0dB penetration loss
– 2Mbit/s, suburban area, range = 5.9km
– 2Mbit/s, suburban area, range = 8.9km
– 5Mbit/s, suburban area, range = 2.2km
– 5Mbit/s, suburban area, range = 5.0km
✓ Rooftop directive antenna + indoor
✓ Rooftop directive antenna + indoor
distribution
distribution
– 2Mbit/s, suburban area, range = 25.0km
– 2Mbit/s, suburban area, range = 37.6km
– 5Mbit/s, suburban area, range = 9.0km
– 5Mbit/s, suburban area, range = 20.9km
Remarks
✓ If cell dimensioning is done based on outdoor coverage,
then indoor coverage can be achieved using additional
directive rooftop antenna
– Costs falling on the user/subsidized by operator or
government?
– Shared directive antennas + local distribution one good option
(village case)
✓ If only fixed wireless based connectivity is assumed very
large cells can be used
– There will be large coverage holes outdoors and especially for
direct indoor coverage
– Doubling the cell range decreases the required number of
eNodeB’s to ¼ from original case.
3.3 LTE Uplink Radio Link Budget
LTE Uplink RLB
✓ Note that besides
data rate the same
parameters are used
as in DL
✓ The UL data rate with
10PRB’s is 1Mbit/s
while it was 2Mbit/s
in DL.
✓ Yet the ALP is almost
the same as in DL.
UE resource allocation and rate

Parameter Comment
Number of This is decided by eNodeB after estimating the required
PRBs bandwidth and scheduling uplink users that are served
at the same time. Thus, in this case 1 Mbit/s takes 10/50
of all resources. In (Rel.8/9) uplink PRB’s are given
continuously in frequency.
Data rate In uplink we have 1Mbit/s while in DL we assumed
2Mbits/s target rate (APL will be almost the same)
UE transmission characteristics

Parameter Comment
UE TX In uplink maximum TX power is 23dBm. It is assumed here since
power this RLB consider cell edge user. Power control is used in uplink
=> TX power can be less than 23dBm as well.
UE antenna UE antenna gain depends on the device type. Typical value is 0dBi
gain while fixed wireless LTE transceivers may have even 10dBi antenna
gain.
Body loss Not visible in this UL RLB but 3-5dB body loss can be subtracted.
EIRP EIRP = TX power + antenna gain (-body loss)
TX power UE power is divided between PRB’s. Thus, with larger number of
per PRB PRB’s, the power per PRB is smaller.
eNodeB receiver (1/2)

Parameter Comment
eNodeB NF measures of degradation of the SNR by the components in
Noise Figure the RF receiver chain, product specific. The minimum
performance requirement is approximately 5 dB but the
practical performance can be better like 2 dB.
Thermal Thermal noise = Boltzmann constant x T (Kelvin) x Effective
Noise bandwidth. The bandwidth depends on the number of
allocated resource blocks. With 10 PRB’s we have -121dBm.
Receiver Receiver noise floor = eNodeB NF + Thermal noise
Noise Floor
eNodeB receiver (2/2)

Parameter Comment
SINR Required Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio depends
on the data rate, number of PRBs and link efficiency.

Receiver sensitivity Minimum power in receiver required to detect the signal.

Receiver sensitivity = Receiver Noise Floor + SINR (in
UL this is given per PRB)
RX antenna gain eNodeB antenna gain, same as in DL
Margins and losses

Parameter Comment
eNodeB cable Same as in DL.
loss
Shadowing loss As in downlink. Values: 4-7dB.
Interference Interference margin reflects the increase in the eNodeB receiver
margin noise level caused by the interference from (other cell) users. Since
LTE uplink is orthogonal, there is no intra-cell interference but we
still need a margin for the other cell interference. This margin
depends on the UL target capacity. That is, there is a tradeoff
between capacity and coverage.
Penetration As in downlink
loss
Allowed propagation loss
APL = PTX + GA(UE ) - LBody + GA(eNodeB) - min { PRX }
- M SF - M I
- LCable - LPenetration
Example: Recall the first DL example
✓ Assume the previous link budget parameters (from DL example) 10MHz band,
2GHz carrier, 35 meter base station antenna height and 1.5 meter UE height
– eNodeB Noise Figure = 2dB (In DL for UE it was 7dB)
– Antenna configuration is now 1x2 SIMO (2 eNodeB antennas, 1 UE TX antenna)
✓ Compute the coverage in case of large city for 1.3Mbps service when eNodeB
allocates 5 PRBs for the user (10 users/cell served simultaneously)
✓ Ranges when assuming 1.3Mbit/s and 5 PRB’s:
– Range in large city = 300 meters
– Range in suburban area = 680 meters
Rural area example (UL)
✓ In suburban area LTE is used on 800MHz to provide mobile broadband
for single houses
– Note: interference margin is decreased to 2dB.
✓ Assume three cases:
1. User is inside a light single house with 10dB indoor penetration loss
2. User is outside the house
3. User has a LTE based fixed wireless system containing directive antenna with 10dBi
gain (2dB cable loss) on the house rooftop (7 meters height). LTE transceiver is
connected to indoor WiFi (through cable) that provides indoor connectivity.
✓ What is the maximum distance from transmitter to eNodeB for
1.3Mbit/s service if receiver can apply 5/10 PRBs?
Illustration of connection options
eNodeB

Yagi antenna
(10dBi gain)
Antenna cable
(2dB loss)

LTE receiver
and WiFi
router

Outdoor UE

See, e.g.: http://www.smartcoverage.eu/4G-

antenna/4g-lte-aerial-antenna.html
Results
5 PRB case: 10 PRB case:
✓ Indoor user with 10dB penetration loss ✓ Indoor user with 10dB penetration loss
– 1.3Mbit/s, suburban area, range = 3.1km – 1.3Mbit/s, suburban area, range = 4.35km

✓ Outdoor user with 0dB penetration loss ✓ Outdoor user with 0dB penetration loss
– 1.3Mbit/s, suburban area, range = 6.0km – 1.3Mbit/s, suburban area, range = 8.4km

✓ Rooftop directive antenna + indoor ✓ Rooftop directive antenna + indoor

distribution distribution
– 1.3Mbit/s, suburban area, range = 25.3km – 1.3Mbit/s, suburban area, range = 35.5km
Contents
1. LTE performance
2. LTE planning targets and
product survey
3. LTE dimensioning
4. LTE detailed planning and
optimization
LTE radio planning process
Objective: to find the best site locations and configurations that achieve network
coverage, capacity and quality targets with the minimized deployment costs

Planning tools (e.g

WinProp) with
All input
powerful simulators Required outputs
parameter
implementing the
values
various LTE algorithms
Site and cell types
Location of the site
Height of the antennas Site locations
Antenna types (pattern) Iteratively run to find best Site & cell
Azimuth orientations of the possible configurations configurations
sector antennas;
Antenna down tilts
(mechanical and electrical)
Power allocation;
Resource block allocation.
DEPLOYMENT

59
Main work on planning & optimization tool

Usage of LTE technologies’

parameters that are set based on
results of product surveys,
experiments, simulation and
standard.

60
Optimization based on OSS, drive
test or/and crowdsourced data

61