Capacity Planning

LTE Radio Planning Release 09

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Link Budget Module
System Overhead Downlink
• Overheads are automatically calculated by the tool and affect the cell/site capacity
• They indicate how many resources are left for user data
Cyclic Prefix
– Normal: There are 7 × 12 = 84 Resource Elements per Resource Block
– Extended cyclic ( for large cells): There are 6 × 12 = 72 RE per Resource Block
Reference Signal
- If 1 Tx antenna: 4 Reference Signals per RB
- If 2 Tx antenna, there are 8 Reference Signals per Resource Block
- If 4 Tx antenna, there are 12 Reference Signals per Resource Block
Example in screen shot below: Normal CP and 1 Tx antenna, overhead = 4 / 84 = 4.76 %
Synchronisation Signal
- Occupies 288 Resource Elements per 20 timeslots per transmit antenna
- Example in screen shot below: Normal CP and 1Tx antenna, overhead = 288 / (84 × 20 ×
50) = 0.34 %

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Link Budget Module ‘Circled’ Resource Elements are
included as part of the PBCH overhead
System Overhead Downlink Remaining ‘DTX’ Resource Elements
are included as part of the Reference
Signal Overhead
PBCH
- Occupies (288 – x) Resource Elements per 20 1 Transmit Antenna
timeslots per transmit antenna
- The value of x depends upon the number of Resource
Elements already occupied by the Reference Signal
x = 12 for 1 transmit antenna
x = 24 for 2 transmit antenna
x = 48 for 4 transmit antenna 2 Transmit Antenna
- Example in screen shot below illustrates the case for
normal cyclic prefix and 1 transmit antenna, overhead =
(288 – 12) / (84 × 20 × 50) = 0.33 %

4 Transmit Antenna

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Link Budget Module
System Overhead Downlink
PDCCH, PCFICH and PHICH
- The combination of PDCCH, PCFICH and
PHICH is able to occupy the first 1, 2 or 3
time domain symbols per TTI
- The number of RE occupied per 1 ms TTI
is given by (12 × y – x), where:
• y depends upon the number of occupied
time domain symbols per TTI (1, 2 or 3) Note: PCFICH on its own occupies 16 RE per 1 ms
• x depends upon the number of RE already TTI. Example in screen shot illustrates the case for
normal cyclic prefix and 50 Resource Blocks in the
occupied by the Reference Signal Frequency Domain, Overhead = 16 / (50 × 84 ×
x = 2 for 1 transmit antenna 2symbols) = 0.19 %)
x = 4 for 2 transmit antenna
x = 4 for 4 transmit antenna when y = 1 Additional Overhead: Assumed to be 0 %
x = 8 for 4 Tx when y = 2 or 3 Total System Overhead: Sum of all overheads
Example in screen shot illustrates the case BLER at first HARQ transmission:
for normal CP, 1 Tx and the first 3 time Assumed to be 10% for the first HARQ
domain symbols occupied: transmission, i.e. 10 % probability of having to
overhead = (12 × 3 - 2) / (12 × 7 × 2) = complete 1 or more re-transmissions
20.24 %
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Link Budget Module
System Overheads Uplink (1/2)

Reference Signal
• The ‘Demodulation Reference Signal is sent within the 4th time domain RE of each RB
occupied by the PUSCH in case of normal CP
• Occupies all RBs not used by the PUCCH. For a 1.4 MHz Channel Bandwidth, the PUCCH
occupies 1 RB per Slot. The number of RE per RB is 84 when using the normal CP. This
means the overhead generated by the Ref. Signal is (5 × 12)/(6 × 84) = 11.9 %
• For the normal cyclic prefix:

Channel BW PUCCH RB/slot Overhead

1.4 MHz 1 ((6-1) × 12) / (6 × 84) = 11.9 %
3 MHz 2 ((15-2) × 12) / (15 × 84) = 12.4 %
5 MHz 3 ((25-3) × 12) / (25 × 84) = 12.6 %
10 MHz 3 ((50-3) × 12) / (50 × 84) = 13.4 %
15 MHz 3 ((75-3) × 12) / (75 × 84) = 13.7 %
20 MHz 3 ((100-3) × 12) / (100 × 84) = 13.9 %

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Link Budget Module
System Overhead Uplink (2/2)

PRACH
• PRACH uses 6 Resource Blocks in the frequency domain.
• The location of those resource blocks is dynamic. Two parameters from RRC layer
define it:
– PRACH Config. Index: for Timing, selecting between 1 of 4 PRACH durations
and defining if PRACH preambles can be send in any radio frame or only in
even numbered ones
– PRACH Frequency offset: Defines the location in frequency domain

PUCCH: See below

Channel BW PUCCH RB/slot Overhead
1.4 MHz 1 1/6 = 16.7 %
3 MHz 2 2/15 = 13.3 %
5 MHz 3 3/25 = 12.0 %
10 MHz 3 3/50 = 6.0 %
15 MHz 3 3/75 = 4.0 %
20 MHz 3 3/100 = 3.0 %

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Link Budget
Capacity

• Cell Edge User Throughput

– Target throughput requirement to be achieved at the cell edge
– Normally it is a customer requirement
– It can limit the MCS to be used
• Required Capacity per User
– Defined by the ratio of the Number of RB per User and the Total number of RB
available in the frequency domain
– If this capacity reaches 100%  user throughput requirement cannot be fulfilled
by the chosen MCS
– In case the tool gives an ERROR it is recommended:
 Change to a higher MCS Higher MCS increases the TBS and reduces the
 Decrease the throughput requirement # of RB per user
 Increase the bandwidth Decrease Throughput to decrease the # of RB
per user
• Number of RBs per User Increase BW to increase the total number or RB
available
– See next slide
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Number of Resource Blocks per User

TBS set
• Number of user data bits transmitted
to single user during one TTI (1 ms)
• Transport Block occupies two resource
blocks in time domain

MCS = 10-16QAM  TBS_index = 9

Air Interface UserThr = 384 / (100% -

10%) = 427 kbps
…search for TBS in ITBS9 >= Air
Interface
#RB_used = 3  TBS = 456 bits
456 bits / TTI = 456 bits / 1 ms = 456
kbps >= 427 kbps
Conclusion: # RB used= 3
Note:
UL 64QAM is not supported in RL10 product
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release although it is available in the tool
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Link Budget Module
Capacity
• Transport Block Size for PDSCH/PUSCH
– Transport block size identified when calculating the Number of RB per User

• Maximum MCS Throughput [kbps]

– Bit rate corresponding to the transport block size scaled up to occupy the complete set of
RB

Max. MCS Throughput= f (TBS)

TBS = f( MCS & Cell edge Throughput)

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Capacity Calculations

• ‘Site capacity’ is calculated inside the Cell Capacity Module within the Tool
• Algorithm calculates the Maximum Cell throughput (capacity) for a single cell.
– Site capacity is calculated with Ccell ( cell throughput) and the number of
sectors Ns:
C site  C cell  N s

• DL Capacity and UL Capacity are calculated based on Link Level Simulations for
chosen antenna, System Level simulations and the inputs from the Link Budget (
mainly in the capacity section)
• Cell capacity ( DL and UL) is calculated
for the scenario selected. Additionally, tool
offers the possibility of calculate capacity
for a ‘user defined’ scenario

UL

Note: Refresh ALWAYS the reference scenario

before capacity calculations to update the LiBu
parameters in case they are different from the
default values
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Capacity Calculations
• Tool calculates the capacity based on:
– SINR PDFs: PDF(SINR)
– Link adaptation curves: Throughput
– Throughput PDF: PDF(SINR)* Throughput
• DL and UL throughputs are calculated multiplying the SINR/ MCS dependent throughput
figures and the corresponding probability for each SINR/MCS
Probability for a user to observe a
certain SINR, if he is randomly
The link placed in the cell
adaptation curve
defines the cell
throughput
corresponding to
a specific SINR
value

From tables in Parameter System level data coming from 2 Multiplication of 1 (Throughput
Sheet. Depend on prop. MoRSE ( also in Parameter per MCS) and 2 ( Probability of
Channel, BLER and 1 sheet). Same distribution is used SINR/MCS occurrence)
transmit/receive diversity for all clutter types
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Network Dimensioning Module

• Calculates the number of sites required to serve

certain area while fulfilling the coverage and capacity
requirements.
• Inputs:
– Geographical and population data
– Traffic Data (subscription rate, OF)
– Site area ( from the link budget)
– Site capacity ( calculated in the Capacity Module)
based on the Link Budget parameters and
simulations
• Outputs:
– The amount of sites needed for Capacity ( UL and
DL) and Coverage ( UL and DL) are calculated for
each clutter type

• The limiting factor ( highest amount of sites required)

between Coverage and Capacity will determine the
total number of sites needed
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Network Dimensioning Module
Traffic (1/2)
• Traffic model is usually given by the operator in
RFI/RFQ/RFP
• Scope: To calculate the total amount of offered
traffic data per subscriber in the Busy Hour (Total
Offered Traffic)
• Traffic Dimensioning may be one of the most
complicate and time consuming tasks of the
Dimensioning Process

Note: Traffic is total, therefore ALL applications provided by the operator ( VoIP,
streaming…) must be considered

• Information may be given in multiple ways and it is difficult to capture all with a
dimensioning tool
• If customer doesn’t provide the traffic data in the tool’s format (e.g. gives total
traffic figures instead) it will be necessary to adjust those inputs in a way that the
sum of the traffic offered for each clutter type equals the total traffic offered for the
different services per phase/year
Subscribers * Subscripti onRate
TrafficTot al 
Overbookin g
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Network Dimensioning Module
Traffic (2/2)
• Subscription rate
– Peak data rate expected by an active user during BH
• Overbooking factor (OF)
– Reflects the fact that not all users are expected to be
served at their subscriber rate at the same time but
that each user is active only for a short time during
the busy hour
– If all users were active at the same time, the system
would be overloaded ( overbooked) by the OF factor
– Indication how much bandwidth can be overbooked
by network operator (e.g. for 1 Mb bandwidth and
OF=10, the operator can sell services with total
throughput of 10 Mb)
• Load [%]
– The field load in rows 30 and 39 of the Network
Dimensioning Module is used when calculating the
total amount of capacity sites needed Note: Capacity calculations are
based on 100% load. Simulations
– It represents the maximum resource utilization
are for full buffer scenario.
– Default: 80% (if required, it needs to be the same
as the neighbour cell load used in the LiBu)
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 Network Dimensioning Module
Number of sites
• Calculated per clutter type and per phase/year
Note: Site throughput
Number of sites for capacity DL and UL: depends on chosen site
• Inputs: layout in LiBu Module:
OMNI, 3-sector or 6-sector
– Total traffic to be served
– Site throughput: Traffic carried by a site

Sites  Roundup (TotalOffer edTraffic / SiteCapacity * Load)

Number of Sites for Coverage DL and UL:

• Inputs:
– Area size ( total area to be covered,
customer input)
– Area covered by a site: Read from LiBu
Module
Sites  Roundup ( AreaSize / SiteArea)
• Total number of sites is defined by the maximum of sites needed for capacity ( UL
and DL) and for coverage( UL and DL)
 Also calculated for all defined clutter types and phases
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