Version 1.

Automatic Site Positioning Add-in

User Manual

AD001
Automatic Site Positioning Add-in - User Manual © Forsk 2018

Table of Contents

1 Automatic Site Positioning Add-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

2 Installing the Add-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

3 Activating the Add-in in Atoll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

4 Configuring the Add-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

4.1 Defining the Storage Location of ASP Path Loss Matrices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.2 Defining ASP Initialisation Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

5 ASP and Atoll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

5.1 Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
5.2 Population and Traffic Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

6 Using the Add-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

6.1 Design Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6.1.1 Hexagonal Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6.1.2 Smart Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6.2 Creating an ASP Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6.2.1 Setup tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6.2.2 Configuration > Zones tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6.2.3 Configuration > Objectives tab (Smart Design only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
6.2.4 Configuration > Parameters tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
6.3 Duplicating a Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
6.4 Modifying a Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
6.5 Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
6.5.1 Preparing an Existing Atoll Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.5.2 Preparing the Geographic Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.5.3 Preparing the Station Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
6.5.4 Defining the Global Strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
6.5.5 Defining the Objectives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
6.5.6 Defining the Zones. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
6.5.7 Running the ASP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
6.5.8 Checking and Commiting ASP Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
6.5.9 Checking ASP Results in Atoll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

7 Advanced Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

7.1 [ASPModel] Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
7.2 [ASPCore] Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

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1 Automatic Site Positioning Add-in

Automatic Site Positioning (ASP) is a dedicated add-in for Greenfield planning. It enables network pre-design analysis in GSM,
UMTS, CDMA2000, LTE, NB-IoT, and WiMAX technologies by evaluating the number of sites needed to cover any given area.
You can use the ASP add-in to automatically position new sites in the most appropriate locations of a defined area. This allows
you to estimate the cost of a mobile network design and compare between possible deployment options and technical
alternatives. You can also plan new sites according to the current network coverage, therefore facilitating network extension
planning to meet market needs.
The ASP add-in automates the positioning of new sites:
• In a defined area or in a set of defined areas.
• In very large areas spanning entire countries.
• Based on a Hexagonal design grid or using a Smart design method based on coverage prediction data as well as terrain,
traffic, and population databases.

2 Installing the Add-in

The ASP add-in is developed by Forsk using the standard Atoll API. It is available on demand and can be used with Atoll version
3.2.1 and later.

The setup program of the ASP add-in is supplied in both:

• a 32-bit version for Atoll 32-bit: "AutomaticSitePositioning_<version>.exe", and
• a 64-bit version for Atoll 64-bit: "AutomaticSitePositioning_x64_<version>.exe"
Before installing the 64-bit version of this add-in, make sure that Atoll 64-bit is installed
correctly. For more information, see the Atoll Administrator Manual.

Installing the Add-in

To install the add-in:

1. Run the add-in setup program.
2. Select an installation folder for the add-in. By default, the installer uses the Add-ins directory in the installation
directory of Atoll.
3. Click Next. The add-in is installed.
4. Once the installation is complete, click Finish to exit the setup.
5. Restart Atoll.

Uninstalling the Add-in

To uninstall the add-in:

1. Exit Atoll.
2. Run the add-in’s uninstall program located in the add-in’s installation folder, or uninstall the add-in through the
Windows Control Panel. In both cases, a confirmation box appears.
3. Click Yes to confirm. An information dialog appears informing you that the add-in was successfully removed.

All components are removed except the add-in initialisation file which can be retrieved
during a future installation in the same directory.

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3 Activating the Add-in in Atoll

To activate the add-in in Atoll:
1. Select Tools > Add-ins and Macros from the menu bar. The Add-ins and Macros dialog box appears.
2. Select the Automatic Site Positioning check box. You can click the Details button to verify the installation details.

Figure 1: Add-ins and Macros dialog box in Atoll

3. Click Close.
4. Restart Atoll. A new folder, ASP - Automatic Site Positioning, appears in the Network explorer.

If you do not see the ASP - Automatic Site Positioning folder in the Network explorer,
verify that the ASP add-in is listed in the About Atoll dialog box and make sure that the
ASP Module check box is not cleared in the Add-ins and Macros dialog box.

4 Configuring the Add-in

You configure the ASP add-in by defining various options. From the user interface, you can change the storage location of the
path loss matrices calculated locally by the ASP add-in. All other options are stored in the ASP.ini file.
The ASP.ini file (found in the Atoll installation directory) contains all the options that the ASP add-in can use to initialise any
new ASP scenario.

4.1 Defining the Storage Location of ASP Path Loss Matrices

By default, the path loss matrices calculated locally by the ASP add-in are stored in a directory named after the current ATL
document: <ATL_name>.asp-losses.

It is recommended to save the ATL document before using the ASP. If the document is
not saved on disk, the ASP stores the path loss matrices in a Windows temporary
directory, specified in a warning message.

If you want, you can specify another directory as follows:

To change the storage location of the path loss matrices calculated locally by the ASP add-in:
1. Select the Network explorer.
2. Right-click the ASP - Automatic Site Positioning folder. The context menu appears.
3. Select Properties from the context menu. The ASP - Automatic Site Positioning Properties dialog box appears.
4. Click the Storage tab.

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Figure 2: Storage Location of Locally Calculated Path Loss Matrices

5. Under Private Directory, enter the name of the directory or click the arrow to the right of the current directory ( )
to navigate to the new directory.

6. Under Shared Directory, enter the name of the directory shared by several users or click the Browse button ( )
beside the current directory to navigate to the new directory.
When ASP reads a specific path loss, it first attempts to read it from the Shared Directory. If the entry does not exist
in the Shared Directory, it then tries to read the information from the Private Directory. If ASPdoes not find the
information in the Private Directory, it calculates the matrix and stores the results in the Private Directory.

The ASP add-in never writes directly to the Shared Directory. There should only be one
user with administrator rights who populates this Shared Directory with the results of
his Private Directory. No other user should set the Shared Directory as his Private
Directory in order to avoid concurrent access.

7. Click OK to save and exit.

4.2 Defining ASP Initialisation Options

For information on the options available in the ASP.ini file, see "Advanced Configuration" on page 20.

5 ASP and Atoll

5.1 Zones
During the site positioning process, the ASP add-in uses different zones for different purposes. A quality objective can be
specified for each zone considered in a given scenario.
• The ASP automatically imports and uses zones from the ATL document: computation, focus, and all hot spot zones.
• It also allows you to create new zones by importing ArcView SHP files as polygon zones, or as vectors representing
roads and railways.

5.2 Population and Traffic Maps

The ASP add-in can use population and traffic maps. The traffic density is used to weight each of the quality figures according
to population or traffic, and to put more emphasis on densely populated or high traffic areas. When using a population map
as input, the ASP target will be based on a % of covered population instead of % of coverage. The supported format for traffic/
population files is the BIL format.

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6 Using the Add-in

Optimising site positioning with Atoll ASP consists of defining the parameters that will be used during the creation of the site
positioning scenario and then calculating scenario. Each site positioning scenario, with its parameters and results, is stored in
a Scenario folder in the ASP - Automatic Site Positioning folder in the Network explorer.

6.1 Design Methods

When you create a new ASP scenario, you must first define all the parameters. You can also modify the parameters of an exist-
ing scenario before calculating it. Once a scenario is calculated, the parameters in its Properties dialog box are grayed out and
can no longer be modified. An ASP scenario can be based on either of two global design strategies:
• Hexagonal design: hexagonal geometric design.
• Smart design: coverage-based design.

6.1.1 Hexagonal Design

ASP can place sites simultaneously inside several zones, each having different placement rules such as hexagonal radius or
inter-site distance. A specific station template can be selected for each defined area or zone.
Hexagonal design is a very simple and quick-to-implement design method that allow you to position sites on a hexagonal grid.
It does not use coverage or prediction models. The covered area is called a hexagonal footprint and is mainly used when site
count results are needed very quickly and/or when no geographic data or prediction models are available.

Figure 3: Hexagonal design method

6.1.2 Smart Design

Smart design is the standard method to be used when geo data and a propagation model are available. Sites are placed
according to target objectives for coverage. Coverage is computed from the propagation model and a station template defines
the radio parameters to be used for each defined area.
This method allows you to obtain the most realistic site placement according to the predicted radio coverage, and produces
a radio design in compliance with the coverage specifications, typically constraining of a new network design.

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Figure 4: Smart design method

6.2 Creating an ASP Scenario

To create a new ASP scenario:
1. Select the Network explorer.
2. Right-click the ASP - Automatic Site Positioning folder. The context menu appears.
3. Select New from the context menu. The Scenario <N> dialog box appears, where <N> represents the Nth scenario
created in the current session of your Atoll project.

Figure 5: Setup tab in the Scenario dialog box

4. Select the Setup tab and define the following parameters:

• Working layer: select the targeted technology layer for site positioning.
• Resolution: select a calculation resolution.
• Method: select Hexagonal design or Smart design (coverage based).
• Use population and traffic: select this check box if you want to specify a population or traffic map File that will be
used to compute the coverage.
For more information on the Setup tab, see "Setup tab" on page 8.
5. Select the Configuration tab.
6. Click on Zones in the left-hand pane. The Zones page appears in the right-hand pane.

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7. In the Zones page, you can modify the following for each defined zone:
• Use: select this check box if you want ASP to take this zone into account.
• Station Template: click the down-arrow and select another template from the drop-down list.
• Inter-site distance (in Hexagonal design only): define the inter-site distance to be used for hexagons. This value is
initialised from the Hexagon radius parameter on the General tab of the station template Properties dialog box.
• Objective (in Smart design only): define the objective to use for site positioning and coverage target.

Name and Design Rules are read-only. Once it is created, you can edit the Name of a
scenario on the General tab of its Properties dialog box or from the Network explorer.
You can also modify the Design Rules by selecting a zone under the Zones folder in the
left-hand pane and making your changes in the right-hand pane.

8. Smart design only:

Click on Objectives in the left-hand pane. The Objectives page appears in the right-hand pane where you can change
the field level Default Threshold and the Target Coverage for each objective. If you click on a specific objective under
Objectives in the left-hand pane, the corresponding page appears in the right-hand pane in which you can define a
Coverage objective per clutter for that objective, allowing for a specific service level in each environment. For more
information, see "Configuration > Objectives tab (Smart Design only)" on page 11.
9. Click on Parameters in the left-hand pane. The Parameters page appears in the right-hand pane.
• In Hexagonal design, the Discard candidate sites outside polygons check box is selected by default. Clear it if you
want to force the ASP to keep the candidate sites that fall outside the defined polygons.
• In Smart design, the Enable indoor coverage check box is cleared by default. Select it if you want to force the ASP
to consider the indoor losses defined in clutter classes properties.
10. Click the Create Scenario button to save the new scenario without calculating it, or click the Calculate button to save
and run the new scenario immediately. For more information, see "Running the ASP" on page 16.

6.2.1 Setup tab

On the Setup tab, you can define the following parameters:
• Working Layer: The ASP add-in uses a unique working layer, i.e. coverage is computed according to that layer. Only
the station template serving that layer will be proposed for positioning.

• A layer combines a technology and a frequency band.

• In UMTS and CDMA2000, the layer is a single channel of the frequency band.

• Resolution: The resolution corresponds to the internal grid used by the add-in to perform its calculation. The ASP add-
in will convert all the data (GIS raster, coverage prediction, etc.) to grid objects and work on matrices. In case the
resolution is small and the area is big, the ASP add-in performs internal swapping so as to avoid memory issues. Since
calculation time increases with smaller resolutions, it is recommended to use an appropriate resolution according to
the size of the planned network, but small enough to capture the coverage features.
• Method: Two site positioning methods are proposed:
• Hexagonal design: based on hexagonal geometric design.
• Smart design: based on a coverage prediction.

Figure 6: Site Positioning Method (Hexagonal design and Smart design)

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The ASP add-in uses the same positioning algorithm in both methods. The only difference is that site coverage in
Hexagonal design is assumed to be an ideal hexagonal footprint, while the Smart design method uses the actual
predicted coverage.
• Use Population and Traffic: By default, the ASP add-in plans the sites in order to achieve an area coverage, the
coverage being defined by a given field level threshold. When you specify a population or traffic map as input, the
ASP add-in will compute the population or traffic coverage instead of the area coverage.

Figure 7: Population Map

Figure 8: Traffic Map

For each pixel covered beyond the required threshold, the coverage figure is not defined as the pixel size (defined by the ASP
add-in’s resolution) but by the total population or traffic on that pixel.

6.2.2 Configuration > Zones tab

6.2.2.1 Zone Configuration
The zone configuration is the driving configuration of the ASP add-in. For each zone defined and used, the ASP add-in will
position sites according to the specified station template, in order to:
• Fill the zone with a hexagonal footprint based on the specified inter-site distance in Hexagonal design.
• Achieve the specified quality objective on that zone in Smart design.

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You configure the zones on the Configuration tab. All contour zones defined in Atoll are automatically listed (computation,
focus, and hot spots). You can also create a new contour-based zone or vector-based zone (for roads, railways, etc.) from an
ArcView SHP file.
To create a new zone, right-click Zones or any zone listed under Zones and select New Zone. Select the relevant ArcView SHP
file in the Open file dialog box and click Open. The new zone appears at the bottom of the list of zones, prefixed with File:.
You can then choose the station template and the objective you want for the new zone.

Figure 9: Defining a Zone (Hexagonal design and Smart design)

• Use: select this check box if the zone is to be used in the ASP add-in’s process. At least one zone must be used.
• Station Template: select a station template for the sites which will be positioned to cover that zone.
• Inter-site distance: in Hexagonal design, define the Inter-site distance that will be considered for the selected zone.
The default setting of the inter-site distance is 3 times the Hexagon radius defined on the General tab of the
associated station template’s Properties dialog box. A full footprint coverage will be built automatically , i.e. there is
no need to define objectives and quality parameters as required in Smart design.

Figure 10: Default Inter-site Distance (Hexagonal design)

• Objective: in Smart design, click the down-arrow next to Objective and select the quality parameter to be used for
new sites positioning. In Smart design, the combination of a zone and an objective defines the objective to be reached
in a given zone.
• Design Rules: some additional Design rules can be specified to fine-tune the resulting network in both Hexagonal and
Smart design methods. See "Design Rules" on page 10.

6.2.2.2 Design Rules

In both Hexagonal and Smart design methods, you can specify additional Design rules to fine-tune the resulting network for
each defined zone.
There are four types of design rules. For the first three design rules, the initial site is moved to a better location by searching
within a search radius defined as a % of inter-site distance.
• Forbidden: Select this check box to disable site positioning in the corresponding clutter class (e.g. for "Inlandwater"
and "Forest" clutter classes). When a site position has been found and it falls within a forbidden clutter class, ASP will
move it to the closest unforbidden location. If the closest unforbidden location is not within the search radius, ASP
will ignore the site position.
• Preferred: Select this check box to prefer site positioning in the corresponding clutter class (e.g. for "Buildings" and
"BlockBuildings" clutter classes). When a site position has been found, ASP will move it in its vicinity to the closest
location with a preferred clutter class. If the closest location with a preferred clutter class is not within the search
radius, ASP will not move the site position.
• Search for a location higher by: Select this check box if you want the ASP to move a site position, once it has been
selected, to a higher location in its vicinity if it is possible. The site position will only be moved if the new location is
higher than the original location by at least the height specified next to Search for a location higher by.

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Figure 11: Configuration tab > Zone > Design Rules

• Additional height offset above clutter: The antenna height is not defined from the station template. Select this check
box to add an Antenna height offset above clutter height or above the default height of the clutter class if no clutter
height is defined. However, if the height is equal to 0m (either the default height of the clutter class or the clutter
height from a raster file), the antenna height is taken from the station template.

6.2.3 Configuration > Objectives tab (Smart Design only)

In Smart design, an objective must be specified for each zone and each objective is defined by a quality level requirement.
The goal of an objective is to cover X % of an area or population/traffic map (Target coverage) with a signal level higher than
Y dBm (requirement threshold defined by a field level Default threshold). The requirement threshold can further be defined
per clutter class, under Coverage objective per clutter, allowing for a specific service level in each environment. There are 3
predefined quality objectives in Smart design:
• Gold: default threshold = -75 dBm, target coverage = 98%
• Silver: default threshold = -80 dBm, target coverage = 95%
• Bronze: default threshold = -85 dBm, target coverage = 90%
To create a new objective, right-click any objective under Objectives in the left-hand pane and select Copy. The new objective
appears at the bottom of the list, prefixed with Copy of. You can then choose the settings you want for the new objective.

Figure 12: Objective page on the Configuration tab (Smart design)

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By default, RSRP is used instead of the signal level in LTE technology. You can modify this
by setting useRSRPasSignalLevel to 0 in the [ASPCore] section of the ASP.ini file.

When you click Objectives in the left-hand pane of the Scenario <N> dialog box, the Objectives page appears in the right-hand
pane, listing the available objectives and the associated settings. The existence of clutter-specific coverage thresholds, if any,
is indicated under Information.

Figure 13: Objectives page on the Configuration tab (Smart design)

6.2.4 Configuration > Parameters tab

When you click on Parameters in the left-hand pane, the Parameters page appears on the right with a specific check box
corresponding to the design method currently selected on the Setup tab.
• Discard candidate sites outside polygons: in Hexagonal design, clear this check box to keep candidate sites that
fall outside the defined polygons. For more information, see "Discarding Candidate Sites outside Polygons in
Hexadecimal Design" on page 12.
• Enable indoor coverage: in Smart design, select this check box to take into account the indoor losses defined in
clutter classes properties.

Figure 14: Parameters page on the Configuration tab - Hexagonal design (left) and Smart design (right)

6.2.4.1 Discarding Candidate Sites outside Polygons in Hexadecimal Design

In Hexagonal design, the ASP add-in tries to fully cover the working zone with a hexagonal footprint. When you click
Parameters in the left-hand pane of the Scenario <N> dialog box, the Parameters page appears in the right-hand pane.
The Discard candidate sites outside polygons check box is selected by default to keep only the sites that fall within the zone
borders. If you clear this check box, all the sites in the hexagonal footprint covering the area will be taken into account.

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Figure 15: Keeping and Discarding Sites outside the Computation Zone (Hexagonal design)

When you discard the sites that fall outside the working zone, the footprint of the hexagonal grid will not fully cover the zone.
In the above example, 6 sites have been discarded outside the computation zone.

6.3 Duplicating a Scenario

To duplicate an existing scenario:
1. Select the Network explorer.
2. Click the Expand button ( ) to expand the ASP - Automatic Site Positioning folder.
3. Right-click the scenario you want to duplicate. The context menu appears.
4. Select Duplicate from the context menu. The copy of <Scenario> dialog box appears.
5. On the Setup and Configuration tabs, set the properties of the new scenario as shown in "Creating an ASP Scenario"
on page 7.
6. Click the Create Scenario button to save the new scenario without calculating it.
Or click the Calculate button to save and run the new scenario immediately. For more information, see "Running the
ASP" on page 16.

6.4 Modifying a Scenario

To modify an existing scenario:
1. Select the Network explorer.
2. Right-click the scenario you want to modify. The context menu appears.
3. Select Properties from the context menu. The Properties dialog box appears.
4. Make your changes and click OK.

For calculated and committed scenarios, the only property you can change is Name on
the General tab.

6.5 Workflow
The global strategy behind the ASP add-in is to imitate the radio engineer process and methods for planning site positioning.
This approach is different from other automatic site positioning tools which use heuristic strategies, such as placing a large
amount of sites, then a pruning algorithm to eliminate useless sites.
The ASP add-in tries to progressively build the network by adding sites in the most appropriate locations of a defined area
according to specified quality objectives.
The typical workflow for using the ASP add-in is the following:
• "Preparing an Existing Atoll Project" on page 14.
• "Preparing the Geographic Zones" on page 14.
• "Preparing the Station Templates" on page 15.
• "Defining the Global Strategy" on page 16.
• "Defining the Objectives" on page 16.
• "Defining the Zones" on page 16.
• "Running the ASP" on page 16.
• "Checking ASP Results in Atoll" on page 20.

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6.5.1 Preparing an Existing Atoll Project

The first task is to prepare an existing Atoll project. The project must define the different radio layers to be used by the ASP
add-in, and the existing transmitters in the network.

• It is recommended to compute path loss predictions for the existing transmitters,

although optional since the ASP add-in is able to compute path losses for existing
transmitters.
• A global computation zone is also recommended, although optional. However, at
least one zone must exist in the ATL document (Computation, focus, or hot spot);
else, you must import a polygon or a vector (external SHP file).

Figure 16 shows a single-layer LTE project with 2 sites, and a computation zone of 415 km².

Figure 16: Preparing an Existing Atoll Project

6.5.2 Preparing the Geographic Zones

When different areas need to be planned with different constraint types, or with different types of sites, several zones should
then be defined in Atoll.
Typically, the ASP add-in will associate a zone with a station template and a coverage objective. Therefore the concept of
designing zones is usually to select areas which require a specific station template or different coverage objectives.
The ASP add-in automatically handles the computation zone, the focus zone, and all the hot spots defined in Atoll. It also
handles polygons (representing contours) and vectors (representing roads and railways) defined as external ArcView SHP files.
Figure 17 shows 4 defined zones: a computation zone (red), a focus zone (green), two hot spots (black), and a vector file (grey).

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Figure 17: Preparing the Zones

6.5.3 Preparing the Station Templates

You must prepare the station templates which will be planned by the ASP add-in. Each zone should assigned a specific station
template for the creation of sites covering that zone.
The station templates can be found in the Network Settings folder in the Parameters explorer.
The parameters required by the ASP add-in are the full definition of transmitters (antenna parameters, cell power, etc.) as
well as propagation parameters (propagation model, range, resolution, etc.), and the hexagon radius in Hexagonal design.

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Figure 18: Preparing a Station Template

6.5.4 Defining the Global Strategy

Once you completed the previous steps in Atoll, you can define how the ASP add-in will calculate a new scenario. For more
information, see "Setup tab" on page 8.

6.5.5 Defining the Objectives

The definition of an ASP objective depends on the design method currently selected on the Setup tab:
• In Hexagonal design, the objective you define is the inter-site distance. For more information, see Figure 10.
• In Smart design, the objective you define is based on a quality parameter and will determine the positioning of the
new sites. For more information, see "Configuration > Objectives tab (Smart Design only)" on page 11. This is not
necessary in Hexagonal design where a full footprint coverage is built automatically.

6.5.6 Defining the Zones

The zone configuration is the driving configuration of the ASP add-in. For each zone defined and used, the ASP add-in will
position sites according to the specified station template, in order to:
• Fill the zone with a hexagonal footprint based on the specified inter-site distance in Hexagonal design.
• Achieve the specified quality objective on that zone in Smart design.
You configure the zones on the Configuration tab. For more information, see "Configuration > Zones tab" on page 9.

6.5.7 Running the ASP

To run the ASP add-in:
1. Select the Network explorer and click the Expand button ( ) to expand the ASP - Automatic Site Positioning folder.

2. Right-click a scenario that was not calculated or committed, i.e. a scenario preceded by the"created" status icon ( ).
The context menu appears.
3. Select Calculate from the context menu. The following dialog box appears showing the progress of the calculation.
In Smart design, the ASP calculates the path loss matrices and stores them. In this mode, the progress of path loss
matrices calculation is displayed in a dialog box.

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Figure 19: Scenario Calculation progress dialog box in Smart design

Once the calculation is finished, a new Result folder appears in the Network explorer under the working scenario.

Figure 20: Result Folder for a Calculated Scenario

• The "created" status icon ( ) preceding the working scenario changes to ( ),

indicating that the scenario has been calculated.
• For the same scenario, the Calculate command in the correponding context
menu is no longer available. It is grayed out and replaced by Calculate [Only one
result allowed].

6.5.8 Checking and Commiting ASP Results

To view ASP results for a given scenario:
1. Select the Network explorer and click the Expand button ( ) to expand the ASP - Automatic Site Positioning folder.
2. Click the Expand button ( ) to expand the Scenario <N> folder.
3. Right-click the Result folder for the selected scenario. The context menu appears.
4. Select Properties from the context menu. The Result Properties dialog box appears with four tabs: General, Statistics,
Implementation Plan, and Commit.

6.5.8.1 Statistics tab

This tab provides general statistics for each zone processed by ASP.
The Overview section is always displayed and you can show or hide the Site Statistics, Configuration, and Context sections.

Figure 21: Statistics tab (Hexagonal design and Smart design)

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The Overview section contains the following information:

• Area: Zone area
• Hexagonal footprint (Hexagonal design): statistics for the initial and final covered areas.
or Coverage objective (Smart design): objective’s name and summary with statistics for initial and final covered areas.
• Initial and Final number of contributing sites: A contributing site is a site which provides some improvement of
coverage for that zone. A site may contribute to several zones, so the addition of the total number of contributing sites
for all the zones can be different than the total number of sites added by ASP.
The Site Statistics section contains the following information:
• Initial and final number of contributing sites.
• New sites and new sites per station template
The Configuration and Context sections contain the following information:
• Configuration summary listing the resolution, the working layer, and the design method used.
• User name, timestamp, and Atoll document name.

6.5.8.2 Implementation Plan tab

This tab provides an ordered list of the sites added by ASP, giving a de facto implementation plan.
• Filter: use this setting to display only the sites contributing to a given zone. If multiple zones were considered during
calculation, select All Zones from the drop-down list or just the zone for which you want to view the implementation
plan. The content of the Implementation Plan tab depends on the number of zones considered for display:

Figure 22: Implementation Plan tab in Hexadecimal Design

Figure 23: Implementation Plan tab for a single zone and multiple zones in Smart design

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In Figure 23, the sites are ranked and created in the order of coverage improvement. This allows you to select the best
sites to deploy.
• Changes: Use this slider to select a subset of the candidate sites you want to commit.

Figure 24: Partial Implementation for a Given Zone

6.5.8.3 Commit tab

Use this tab to Commit the candidate sites you previously filtered on the Implementation Plan tab and, consequently, add
them to the Atoll database.
You can Roll Back to Initial State at all times, even after clicking OK on the Commit tab and saving the Atoll document, to
remove all the sites added during a commit and therefore retrieve the initial state of the network.
In Smart design, you can choose to Also commit computed path losses. When this check box is selected, ASP-computed path
losses for this scenario will be stored in its private directory. This avoids recalculating the path losses of the new sites in Atoll.

Figure 25: Commit tab in Smart design

The "calculated" status icon ( ) preceding the working scenario changes to ( ) in the
Network explorer, indicating that the scenario has been commited.

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6.5.9 Checking ASP Results in Atoll

Once ASP results are committed, you can create coverage predictions in Atoll to analyse the newly created network.

Figure 26: Checking the Results in Atoll

7 Advanced Configuration
Some configuration preferences may be configured through the ASP.ini file. This file must be located in the installation
directory of Atoll ASP.

7.1 [ASPModel] Section

This set of configuration preferences control the default values presented in the setup interface..
• resolution = 50
• workingLayerIdx = 0
• isSmartStategy = true
• traffic.use = false
• traffic.file =
• hexaParam.keepAllCandidates = false # If false, ASP discards candidate sites outside polygons in Hexagonal design.

Objectives definition

• objective.count = 3
• objective.0.name = Gold
• objective.0.threshold = -75
• objective.0.targetCoverage = 98
• objective.0.clutter.count = 0
• objective.0.clutter.0.code = 10
• objective.0.clutter.0.threshold = -75
• objective.1.name = Silver
• objective.1.threshold = -80
• objective.1.targetCoverage = 95
• objective.2.name = Bronze

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• objective.2.threshold = -85
• objective.2.targetCoverage = 90

Default Zone Definition

• default.zone.objectiveIdx = 0
• default.zone.isHightPoint = 0 # If 1, the "search for a location higher" option is activated.
• default.zone.hpSearchRadiusRatio = 30
• default.zone.hpHeightThres = 10
• default.zone.hpInterCandidateDist = -1 # if -1, used distance is the related station template’s hexagonal distance x3.
• default.zone.heightAboveClut = 2
• default.zone.clutter.count = 0 # indicates the number of categories for clutter classes predefined in this section.
• default.zone.clutter.0.code = 10 # code of clutter class of category 0.
• default.zone.clutter.0.forbid = false # if true, placement is forbidden for this clutter of category 0 (e.g. code 10)
• default.zone.clutter.0.prefer = false # if true, placement is preferred for this clutter of category 0 (e.g. code 10)
• default.zone.clutter.0.heightAbove = false # if true, an additional height is considered above clutter of category 0 (e.g.
code 10)

Automatic Build of Zones Corresponding to Defined Hot Spots

• zone.autoBuildHotspot = 1

Zone Defined by Settings

• zone.count = 0
• zone.0.name = myZoneName
• zone.0.file = c:\myZone.shp

7.2 [ASPCore] Section

The following configuration preferences control the internal calculation processing:
• candidateNaming.startNumber = N # (default = "1")
When candidate sites are created, the Atoll numbering convention is used. The start number can be forced.
• candidateNaming.prefix = ASP_ # (default = "ASP_")
When candidate sites are created, the Atoll naming convention is used. You can append the prefix you want.
• generateLogFile = 1 # (default = 0, no log file)
Use this option to generate a log file in the following form: <ATL_name>_optim.log.
• gisDataClutterUsePoly = 1 # (default = 0, polygon definition not used)
Use this option to specify if clutter raster uses local polygon definition.
• gisDataClutterOnlyRes = N # (default = 0, layer filtering not used)
You can specify if only a single clutter layer at a defined resolution should be used for assigning clutter class to pixel.
This has effect to filter all clutter layer from different resolution. If used, it is good to also specify clutter class which
should be ignored in the ACP GUI with preference: "zone.clutter.hiddenCodes".
• useRSRPasSignalLevel = 1 (for LTE technology only)
• When EIRPfromRSEPRE = 1 in the platform’s initialisation file:
RSRP is used instead of the signal level
• When EIRPfromRSEPRE = 0 in the platform’s initialisation file:
RSRP is used instead of the signal level if useRSRPasSignalLevel = 1 in ASP.ini (default = 1)
You can use the following properties to manage multithread computation:
• doParallelSector = 1
Use this option to define whether sector calculation is multi-threaded.
No thread if PropagationMode supports CalculatePerSite, otherwise one thread per sector.
Note that the algorithm actually uses 3x3=9 threads, but major CPU computations really stream on the pathloss
computation which in fact uses another thread pool allocated one thread per CPU core.
• pathlossThreadPoolSize = -1
Use this option to define the maxium number of threads to be used when a propagation model computation is
launched (Smart design, or invalid pathloss for existing sites).
-1: means auto-configuration, one thread per CPU core.
Else: this number of threads will be used (limiting the number of used licenses for a specific propagation model).

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