Transmission Network Planning and Dimensioning

Challenges while doing planning

Some of the main challenges in the network design are :
Proper dimensioning of capacity, no over-dimensioning the capacities for the initial phase, when coverage is the main goal of the deployment Network reliability with total control of the quality and availability of links. Vast-scale rollout with easy re-deployment. Reduced dependency on third party carrier. Assuring the infrastructure built today will be able to scale and carry the increased traffic when capacity becomes the main goal of the deployment.

Transmission Planning process

Transmission Network dimensioning is carried out as per the process where you need certain inputs and assumptions on the basis of which planning output is generated. The process document is separately prepared which can be referred for details like the steps on the process, Inputs phases, Analysis phases, various interfaces involved in different processes etc. This document gives in detail the actual planning works involved and guidelines thereof in various processes.

Transmission Planning process

Inputs from customer

The Customer Specifications detail many aspects as to how the network or phase of network should look and be rolled out in case of new Greenfield scenario. OR the Customer will have done some investigation as to their network expansion requirements, this is done from traffic analysis and marketing input. From this they will have a plan, of which areas they need to include additional capacity or coverage. This plan once checked against the planning tool would give the optimum co-ordinates for the sites or Search Ring Centers. A Search Ring is an area around the best location co-ordinates (usually no more than 1Km in diameter), which is used to task the site acquisition team to locate options.

All phases of rollout should be performed according to the Customers request.

So, The list of new towns to be covered from the customer along with the traffic details.

Nominals generation by RF planner

Upon reciept of the Customer requirement, the RF Planning team will do some analysis of the Search Ring specifications. To identify if it is sufficient to meet the demands of the rollout, and to confirm that the proposed locations are able to meet the coverage requirement, as requested by the customer. Should the proposed Search Ring not meet the requirements, then the RF planning team will issue a change request to move the search ring to a position that does fit the requirements. The RF planning team will also specify their antenna height requirements from this planning and will make an application for Aviation authority clearance in the area of that site. So, finally RF engg to arrive at the final list and count of new town sites and sites in the existing towns and the subscribers in each of these.

Issuing of search rings

Once all the search rings in an area have been identified and agreed upon they can be released to site Acquisition and the other departments (including Access Transport Network Design). This allows the other departments to start their processes. For Access this means that the Search Ring Centers co-ordinates should be input into the databases.From the issue of search rings or even nominals, the Nominal Transmission plan can be produced.

Guidelines/Parameters
At this stage some guidelines as to the planning parameters should be decided upon with customer and entered into the Planning tool - these will generally include. A ) For existing coverage area expansion :
No. of frequency spots being used / applied for MW emission ? Latest NW plan showing various configurations of MW hops on-air along with capacities. Minimum antenna size recommended for MW ? Maximum antenna size allowed ? Maximum loading capacity of a MW radio hop allowed in %age ? Per hop availability of MW hop required ? Maximum loading of terminating ports of a BSC allowed ? Existing Lease line details required along with capacities for Abis traffic, if any? Existing Lease line details required along with capacities for Ater traffic ? Minimum no. of BTS required in loop configuration ? Maximum no. of BTS allowed in chain configuration ? Any STM-1 hop to be planned with 2xSTM-1 XPIC configuration. Inter BSC traffic running on LL / MW ? Any POI transmission system to be planned ? Would transmission be planned for both co-located BTSs in different frequency bands ?

B) For new Greenfield area expansion :

No. of frequency spots to be considered in each band for MW emission radiation ? Minimum antenna size recommended for MW ? Maximum antenna size allowed ? Maximum loading of a MW radio hop capacity allowed in %age ? Per hop availability of MW hop required ? Per section availability allowed ? Maximum loading of terminating ports of a BSC allowed ? Existing Lease line details required along with capacities for Abis traffic, if any? Existing Lease line details required along with capacities for Ater traffic ? Minimum no. of BTS required in loop configuration ? Maximum no. of BTS allowed in chain configuration ? Any STM-1 hop to be planned with 2xSTM-1 XPIC configuration. Inter BSC traffic to run on LL / MW ? List of cities where POI transmission is to be planned. Any MW repeater to be considered ? Any BTS clubbing allowed ? Can we consider use of ADPCM for POI traffic concentration? How much spare height of tower to be kept after planning the GSM/MW antenna? How much clearance in meters to be kept between Fresnel zone and the obstruction? Would customer be able to provide external interference details ? Would customer be able to provide maps / DTMs for RF/Tx planning 9

Nominal Transmission Plan

The Nominal Transmission Plan (NTP) is a very basic overview of the proposed Network layout, typically produced using MapInfo or Mapgrid feature of Pathloss tool. The NTP is produced, by taking the Search Ring Centers / P1 options /nominals, and connecting them together using simple topologies. Considerations as above, to be considered while preparing the NTP. Once the NTP has been verified in the Planning tool, it should be stored as a layer for presentation to the customer. From the above data, the number of BSCs required is to be calculated and this is given by the RF engg. If number of BSCs are not enough from transmission point of view, planner can justify and ask additional requirement. Further the projected capacity of A-ter for each BSC is to be calculated. Also the number of MSCs required is given by the core planner. The number of inter-MSC E1s, number of ports for each of the POIs is also given by the core planner. Based on the above inputs, the planner should prepare the nominal connectivity plan. This can be done by plotting all the new sites on the tool. Based on the existing and new BTS distribution, the location of the BSCs can be fixed from the transmission perspective. The BSCs can then be validated along with the RF engg. The connectivity can be done based on the terrain data in the tool or the knowledge of local area or through the use of GIS systems available. It is very important here for Tx planner to get his plan / bsc boundaries approved from RF engineer.
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BoQ Preparation
Once the nominal connectivity plan is prepared, it can broadly be known as to how many 7GHz/15GHz/18GHz/23GHz links are required based on the spectrum availability for a circle. Further the capacities of each of the link i.e. 4E1/8E1/16E1/STM-1 and MUXs can be finalized based on the above covered inputs on capacity projections. It should be noted that at any point of time the utilization of the MW link should be maintained at less than 80% or whatsoever given by customer.

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Line of Sight (LOS)

Line of Sight is defined as the visible path between two site locations. For Microwave connection this path should be unobstructed to at 100% of first Fresnel zone, and have as an average a minimum clearance of 5.0 m over obstructions. Should it not be possible to obtain LoS confirmation at the site qualification, then a full survey will have to be completed.

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GENERAL TRANSMISSION NETWORK DESIGN

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Network Architecture
Transmission is of major important element in any mobile network, affecting both the service quality as well as the cost of the mobile operator. Careful transmission dimensioning and planning from the initial state is thus certainly worthwhile from the business point of view. Figure illustrates the logical connection in GSM network.
MSC MGW MSS

TCSM

BSC

BSC

BTS BTS BTS

BTS BTS BTS

BTS BTS

BTS BTS

BTS BTS BTS

BTS BTS BTS

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The transmission core network is planned for imbibing the capacity requirements for a 2.5G rollout in the following phases of the rollout. A three-tier topology is planned for the metro as well as state Network. The multi tier approach will help in the aggregation and maintenance of the nodes more efficiently. Tier 1 -The fiber Bb for every circle is planned to carry MGW-MSC server traffic, Inter MGW traffic and Ater traffic in case of metro circles while in case of state circle it may carry all MGW-MSC server traffic, Inter MGW traffic and partial Ater traffic, as in case of state circles MW BB may also carry some Ater traffic. Tier 2 The MW rings of STM and high capacity PDH radios are formed starting from the TRS nodes and PoPs. These rings will encapsulate the maximum access capacities and backhauls on to the nearest transmission nodes. The transmission planned on microwave links offers the fastest means for network rollout and capacity expansion in the access. Furthermore, operational expense is considered less expensive than laying own cable or leasing connection. Tier 3 The PDH 16 E1 radios are deployed on the MW STM rings. These hops will rope in all the existing traffic on to the nodes. These hops are downgradable to lower capacity radios by which efficient usage of BW can be done and hence freq spots can be better managed. Apart from above three tiers , transmission planner is also committed to provide POI connectivities which includes connectivity of L1 and L2 exchanges.
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Key Dimensioning Aspects of a NW architecture

Reliable and highly available strong STM 1 backbone which can cover maximum possible key locations and highways is recommended. This will ensure reliable connectivity to cover maximum network elements and reduce dependence on third party carrier networks. Software capacity upgrade: Pay as You Grow, zero reaction time to traffic pattern changes. In cases where direct MW hops from a backbone site are not possible, MW repeaters have been considered. Most of these repeaters are chosen in such a way that they can be converted to potential BTS sites in subsequent phases. Leased line has been considered for faster roll out in phase1 and to reduce the load on MW backbone in specific cases. Also where MW repeater sites requirement goes beyond two. All BSC-Media Gateway connectivity and Media Gateway to MSC server to be with system redundancy. SNCP protection has been proposed on LL. BSCs and highway towns are to be connected on the backbone.

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Tier 2 & 3 Network

Figure below illustrates the access portion of a possible network. In this specific case, the links carry the same traffic capacity. The access network is found in the two lowest levels of the network (PDH 34 Mbit/s and STM1). The backbone network is found in the highest level (STM1/4).
RNC/MSC RNC/MSC STM1/4 RNC/MSC Node/Hub STM1 Node/Hub Node/Hub PDH (34 Mbit/s) Node/Hub
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RNC/MSC

Node/Hub

Node/Hub

Network Topologies

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Ring Topology
In fig BTS-sites are connected as a ring (loop). The capacity requirement is the total sum of the individual capacity requirements.

BTS 4

BTS 5

BTS 6

BTS 3 BTS 2 BTS 7

BTS 1 BSC/METROHUB LOCATION

BTS 8

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Pros and Cons of Ring Topology

Improvement of the availability of network, that is, in the event of a failure in one link, the traffic can be re-directed toward the other direction of the ring. If the ring has sufficient capacity to carry all the traffic from every site in both directions, then complete redundancy has been achieved. Unavailable time caused by hardware failure is reduced without the necessity of doubling the radio equipment. Planned rings may never become rings because conditions and requirements may be changed during the network expansion. If network capacity is not increased, the ability to handle traffic decreases. Every site must be connected to two sites and line-of-sight might be difficult to accomplish. Cross-connectors are required. Equipment cost might be higher than other solutions. All links must be able to handle full capacity.

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Star Topology
Each BTS is connected to the BSC/Hub Site independent of the rest of the traffic. This causes high concentration of hops at Hub site resulting in frequency interference and threshold degradation. This topology is mostly used in areas with LOS limitations or it applies to an area where we can afford to loose redundancy of BTSs as compared to the cost of carrying backhaul traffic. This is not suited to city network. The BTS will not have redundant path and only option is to have equipment redundancy. The hops used in this topology can be 1+0 or 1+1 depending on whether there are further sites connected in chain to any arm of the star or as per customer inputs.

BTS 1

BTS 1

BTS 1

BSC / HUB LOCATION

BTS 1 BTS 1

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Pros and Cons of Star Topology

The BTS-sites may be established to expand capacity requirements in a particular area separately from capacity requirements in other parts of the network. Each path is traffic-independent so the effect of hardware failure is limited. Limited number of paths in a chain makes the quality and availability objectives easier to accomplish. The network may be gradually taken into service in accordance with the establishment of new sites. It involves a large number of incoming RNC/MSC routes and their corresponding antennas. This may cause space and strength problems for antenna support structures. Robust structures are generally more expensive. The high number of incoming routes may lead to problems in finding sufficient number of available channels and then contributing to interference environment. Some BTS-sites may be situated too far from the RNC, thus increasing fading probabilities. It might be difficult to find line-of-sight toward each direction.

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Chain Topology
A number of sites connected in sequence, where every intermediate site is connected to only two sites in the chain. In case there are more than 3 sites in a chain , then the links will be planned as 1+1. In case it is not possible to close any other route and in case a BSC happens to fall in a chain, redundancy for the BSC should be planned on alternate media or leased lines. This type of configuration consists of linking RBS-sites in a chain such that the previous RBS sites in the chain act as active repeaters for the last one; see the fig illustrates two chains converging to a common RNC/MSC. In this particular case, the configuration can also be extended to a tree configuration by adding more RBS-sites to each existing RBS-site, but without closing the tree foliage to become a ring. Parts of a chain can also be used in mixed topologies.

BTS BSC

BTS

BTS

BTS

BTS

BTS

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Pros and Cons of Chain Topology

Provides often a minimum length per link and is therefore normally a costeffective solution. Low concentration of equipment at nodal points. Utilization of transmission resources in the case of a tree configuration. Since the links are connected in sequence, it is expected poorer hardware availability caused by hardware faults. Capacity requirement increases along the chain toward the RNC/MSC High capacity links are required near nodal point.

At the very bottom of the network hierarchy (farthest from the RNC/MSC), where capacity is relatively low (2 Mbit/s), the paths are normally unprotected. Closer to the RNC/MSC where the capacity is accumulated, it is strongly recommended to implement some degree of protection. A Cascaded configuration is similar to the chain/tandem configuration described in this section, but the traffic may be concentrated at some BTS-sites in the chain (hubs). Protection is strongly recommended in the feeder link.

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Spur Topology
A spur is a single link connected to a hub site or a chain site. Spurs shall be planned as 1+0 only unless there is a special requirement to have a 1+1 link

HUB SITE BTS 1

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Actual scenarios of tier3 network

In actual, while planning a city access NW on MW, we come across following limitations : Non existence of LOS between BTSs.. Limitations of tower heights owing to civil and municipality issues. As a result of which, we are not able to bring all the sites in loop configuration. So, it should be tried to keep at least 80 % of sites in protection and rest can be taken in spur.

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Metro city NW
For e.g. A big city having high penetration of BTSs would like as follows , where sites are fashioned in star or loop fashion across SDH ring.

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Medium city NW
Sometimes we come across the situation that there are not enough BTSs in a city but a BSC is located in a city so as to cater Abis traffic to remote cities on Lease lines . The MW of this city having BSC may look like as follows :

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Small City Network

While a city having LL can be made work in spur or loop protection depending upon the LL availability and its cost. The MW network of a city litting up on LL may look like as follow:

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Clusters of Microwave
The network is divided into sub-networks (clusters) having BTS-sites distributed around a common centre. All clusters are then connected to a common centre site. Clusters present many advantages: The overall availability is increased if the cluster connections to the centre are protected. Shorter paths from all sites to the centre site. More flexible rollout. Distributed transmission capacity.

RNC/MSC

This kind of NW is constructed in a city where lot of Fibre points are available and LL is available from these nodes till BSC in SNCP protection. These small clusters are also called as islands.
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Summary
Chain/tandem configurations are suitable when providing radio coverage along roads or rivers. In this case the radio base station is often of omni-directional type. Tree configurations are suitable in smaller or medium sized networks. Star configurations are suitable for small networks. Ring configurations are suitable when high availability is required.

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Capacity Planning

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Planning Capacity Requirements

The total capacity requirements of any link are to be arrived at after taking all the following mentioned needs into consideration. Ensure that the Microwave link is designed to maintain a capacity utilization of 50-70%. The augmentations or upgrades should be carried out in time so that the link capacity is not utilized above 70% at any given time.

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Capacity planning per BTS in Rural

Each Ultra BTS in the rural scenario should be allocated a dedicated E1 for a maximum TRX configuration of 4/4/4. Incase the TRX configuration is designed beyond 4/4/4; allocate a second E1 for such BTS. In case of Metro BTS with TRX design of 2/2/2, the E1 can be shared with another Metro of similar configuration till the total TRX count remains within 12TRX.

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 Capacity planning per BTS in City/Town

In case of Metros, allocate 2E1 per BTS. This would cater for TRX configurations beyond 4/4/4 as the Metro have the required GSM spectrum to go beyond 4/4/4. Also the requirements on EDAP are about 6 TS and hence 2E1s per BTS. In case of showcase towns in the circles, allocate 1.5E1 per BTS to cater for the EDAP pool of 3TS and any configuration beyond 4/4/4 wherever feasible.

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 Capacity planning for A-ter

The A-ter capacity is to be maintained at 70% utilization (on the main media or route). As soon as the capacity utilization crosses 70% take steps to augment the capacity. This will ensure that during the interim period the utilization would not cross beyond 90%. Each BSC should have a redundant path for A-ter. This could be Microwave, BTSOL OFC or any other leased media. At all times ensure that at least 50% of the E1s in the main path are on the redundant media or ring. For example, at 70% utilization if any BSC requires 20E1s for Ater, then on the main Microwave/BTSOL path, the number of E1s should be 20E1s and on the redundant media like Microwave alternate path/BTSOL/RAILTEL etc the number of E1s should be 10E1s. This will ensure that even when the main route goes down, the redundant route will ensure functioning of BSC though with a limited congestion.
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 Capacity planning for POI

BSNL Poise to be planned on OFC preferably considering the future requirements. Wherever the future requirement is not expected to go beyond 16E1s, MW can be planned. The POI should be planned for 70% utilization.

Capacity planning for other services

Gb links MCA and other VAS E1s OSS connectivity DCN connectivity IN connectivity HLR signalling

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