Design Paper: UMTS Cell Dimensioning

UMTS Cell Dimensioning Process Overview

1. SCOPE

The purpose of this Design Paper is to provide an overview of Alcatel-Lucents UMTS cell dimensioning process.

2.

INTRODUCTION

Focussing on the FDD mode of the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) system, the following Design Paper highlights the challenges of UMTS Cell Dimensioning and how Alcatel-Lucent addresses them.

Coverage Requirements
Land Usage

Traffic Requirements
Offered Services

Coverage areas Clutter definition

Service bit rate Traffic volume per subscriber Subscriber density

QoS and GoS Requirements

BLER Blocking Probability Delay Coverage probability Indoor Penetration

Cell Dimensioning Outputs

Cell size calculation Number of Node-Bs Configuration

Number of sectors Number of carriers Coverage enhancement features Capacity enhancement features Antenna heights

The purpose of UMTS Cell Dimensioning is to derive a first estimation of the number and configuration of Network elements (Node-B) necessary to meet operators requirements in terms of coverage, capacity and quality of service.
Alcatel-Lucent File Reference 3DC 21151 0001 TQZZA Date
06/2007

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Ed 2

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Design Paper: UMTS Cell Dimensioning

This first network size estimation relies on a wide range of inputs, all impacting the cell dimensioning results and thus the network CAPEX. Coverage requirements describe the size and shape of the areas to be covered as well as the environmental assumptions (clutter type) that will impact the propagation losses. Traffic requirements provide details on the offered services in terms of bearer bit rate, traffic volume per subscriber and per service. These inputs combined with information on subscriber density will enable the generation of traffic maps required for cell dimensioning. Quality of Service (QoS) and Grade of Service (GoS) requirements have also to be considered for a proper cell dimensioning. They describe the expected Block Error Rate (BLER), the blocking probability for Real Time services, the delay for Non Real Time services as well as information related to coverage probability and Indoor quality level.

3.

UMTS DIMENSIONING CHALLENGES

3.1 Cell Breathing

In a WCDMA mobile radio system, all users are active at the same time in the same frequency band. Separation between the different users' information signals is obtained by assigning to each user a code sequence from a code family (in UMTS the OVSF code family) having right auto and cross-correlation properties. A code sequence is a sequence of bits (chips) with higher rate than the symbol rate. This operation is called spreading and enables to work at low signal to interference level. In the case of completely orthogonal, synchronously transmitted and received signals, the user signals can be separated perfectly.
30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Power Carrier 1 Time Frequency Carrier 2

Transmission at the time, in the same band

One User

This is not possible in Uplink since users are

50% of Cell load (3dB of interference)

Interference Level [dB]

transmitting asynchronously. But even in Downlink, where all signals are transmitted synchronously, maintained propagation. As a result, communications will suffer from interference generated by other users
Cell loading [%]

orthogonality due to

cannot

be

perfect

Multipath

Interference level rise

transmitting on the same frequency. Any new user accessing the network will increase the cell loading and therefore contribute to the interference level rise. The network cannot absorb infinite interference level.

W-CDMA networks are interference limited

Alcatel-Lucent File Reference 3DC 21151 0001 TQZZA

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06/2007

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Design Paper: UMTS Cell Dimensioning

Considering a reference user located at cell edge and already transmitting at its maximum power (e.g. 21 dBm = 125 mW), any increase of the number of users in the cell will mean that the UE of the reference user is no longer able to overcome the interference. As a consequence, the calls quality will be altered and the call dropped (for the reference user and for any user in the same situation). These call drops represent a loss of coverage in Uplink. On the other hand, less calls lead to an interference reduction for the other users, which corresponds to a wider potential coverage for them.

This fast coverage variation in UMTS due to different interference levels in the cell is the so-called Cell Breathing Effect.
The Cell Breathing effect illustrates the trade-off that exits between coverage and capacity in UMTS. The traffic in the cell impacts the interference level. The limited power resource has to overcome both Pathloss and interference. Once the power has reached its maximum, a growing interference implies a lower allowable Pathloss and therefore a smaller cell range. The interference therefore determines the cell range. However, the cell range (i.e. the cell area) impacts the number of captured users and therefore the traffic. This results in a closed loop as depicted on the right hand figure.
Interference Cell Range M ulti-service Traffic in the cell

Coverage Capacity Trade-off

3.2 Multiservice Traffic

One of the key-dimensioning challenges that have to be addressed in UMTS Cell Dimensioning lies in the Multiservice nature of the traffic. The evaluation of traffic impact on cell size and Node-B configuration is much more complex for a WCDMA system than for a GSM system where there was a single service (speech) with its associated blocking. UMTS networks have to handle services with: different bearer bit rates different Grade of service different quality of service (BLER) different time constraints (RT and NRT) different UL&DL traffic volumes 3.2.1 A Service Dependent Coverage Multiservice traffic consequence of these different service parameters results in different service sensitivities at the Node-B receiver. The coverage range of two services can therefore differ. This is illustrated in the figure bellow where low data rates can achieve higher coverage than high data rates. Moreover, Node-Bs and UEs do not have the same performances in terms of sensitivity and Tx power. As a result, Uplink and Downlink coverage have different behaviours.
Alcatel-Lucent File Reference 3DC 21151 0001 TQZZA Date
06/2007

Possible 3G services

Telephony Video-Conference Web-browsing Video Games Location based services Downloading Audio Streaming

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Design Paper: UMTS Cell Dimensioning

All of this has to be considered carefully in the Cell

Voice and Low Data Rate

Dimensioning process if the target is to provide a seamless coverage for all the services and users. The strategy of offering high data rates services in Uplink can seriously impact the number of Node-Bs to deploy, as shown on the right hand figure.
Numbe r of Cov e rage site s for Uplink M ax Throughput

Medium Data Rate High Data Rate

Number of Coverage sites

350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Rollout Ye ars
384 kbps 128 kbps 64 kbps Speech

Service dependant coverage

3.2.2

Statistical impact of Multiservice traffic

An additional aspect of UMTS systems consists in the Multiservice resource allocation. In terms of W-CDMA radio resources, the main dimensioning resources are interference and Node-B power. These resources are dynamically shared amongst all users. This introduces

Impact of Uplink throughput on number of sites

certain truncking efficiency compared to a scenario where a given capacity is divided between different services/users (e.g. GSM). In the latter case, the required resources for the different services can be dimensioned separately, in the former case, a common approach has to be found taking into account the traffic mix. In the Multiservice environment, the user activity for different services shows different statistical behaviours which have to be described by applying stochastical traffic models in order to judge the expected traffic created by the service mix (see figure bellow).
Video conferencing, Voice, SMS, Shopping on line, Web browsing, File transfer, Video games...
Combination of 1 user 128K +3 voice users +1 user 64K

Over-Dimensioning
Average traffic Aggregate traffic
Busy hour

Optimised Dimensioning Under-dimensioning

Statistical traffic behaviour in a Multiservice environment The above figure shows that dimensioning the resources for average traffic will necessarily generate too many call drops or blockings. On the contrary, dimensioning the network for the peak traffic will require a lot of resources when it is better to look for a compromise between grade of service (e.g. blocking) and capacity for economical reasons. The best approach is to target optimised dimensioning.

Alcatel-Lucent File Reference 3DC 21151 0001 TQZZA

Date
06/2007

Edition
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Design Paper: UMTS Cell Dimensioning

4.

ALCATEL-LUCENT PROCESS OVERVIEW

In order to address efficiently the challenges raised by Cell breathing and Multiservice resource calculation, Alcatel-Lucent has implemented an advanced UMTS Iterative Multiservice Link Budget, which main characteristics are: Multiservice Radio Link Budget Iterative process Traffic Module Advanced Downlink Power calculation
The following figure illustrates the main blocks and flows involved in the Alcatel-Lucent UMTS Iterative Multiservice Link Budget. Alcatel-Lucent Iterative Multiservice Link Budget combines three separate modules fed with W-CDMA parameters and Multiservice traffic inputs. The First Module performs the Uplink Analysis in order to derive the Uplink cell range and other Uplink related outputs. The Uplink Cell Range depends on the UEs transmit power, the Node-B receiver sensitivity in function of the different services, propagation parameters and the total interference (i.e. noise rise) at Node-B receiver. This Total interference, which is the Uplink shared resource, is calculated thanks to the Alcatel-Lucent Traffic Module after several iterations between both modules.

WCDMA Radio Parameters MULTISERVICE Traffic

UL cell range

DL cell range

UPLINK Analysis

Iterative

Process Interference

Traffic Model

Iterative Process
Interference & Power

DOWNLINK Analysis

UL Cell range Mobiles Tx Power UL cell load UL Capacity

Balanced Cell Range

DL Cell range Node-B Tx Power DL cell load DL Capacity

Alcatel-Lucent UMTS Iterative Multiservice Link Budget These iterations are driven by the coverage-capacity trade-off (captured traffic has an impact on cell range and vice versa).
Alcatel-Lucent File Reference 3DC 21151 0001 TQZZA Date
06/2007

Edition
Ed 2

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Design Paper: UMTS Cell Dimensioning

The second module runs a traffic model implemented by Alcatel-Lucent in order to derive the amount of Uplink and Downlink resources, in a Multiservice traffic environment, required to satisfy all services GoS. The third module performs the Downlink analysis in order to calculate the Downlink cell range and other Downlink related parameters. The Downlink analysis computes the Node-B Tx power required to handle the traffic captured in the cell and adjusts the cell range until the max power has been reached. The Node-B Tx power is calculated thanks to Alcatel-Lucent Traffic Module after several iterations between both modules (again to address coverage-capacity trade-off).

Both Uplink and Downlink processes can be run separately or together depending on the expected outputs. There are fully independent.
This Iterative Multiservice Link Budget provides a wide range of relevant results and not only the cell range. Information on the different cell loading (for Uplink and Downlink), the required Tx powers and on the capacity is made available. This Cell Dimensioning Process is implemented in an Alcatel tool.

5.

MAIN CONCLUSION

Cell Dimensioning provides a first estimation on the number and size of network elements necessary to meet operators requirements in terms of coverage, capacity and QoS. Alcatel-Lucent UMTS Cell Dimensioning process relies on advanced Traffic module and runs an iterative Multiservice Link Budget with separate Uplink and Downlink analysis. This Alcatel-Lucent process is a powerful means to set up a deployment strategy by anticipating coverage and capacity issues and forecast appropriate network upgrades. It is a great help for operators in the exercise of OPEX and CAPEX estimations. This estimation can be further tuned through the use of the Alcatel-Lucent Cell Planning tool.
Other related documents: Design Paper: Downlink Analysis - Node-B Power Design Paper: Uplink Analysis - Link Budget Design Paper: Traffic Modelling in UMTS

End of DOCUMENT

Alcatel-Lucent File Reference 3DC 21151 0001 TQZZA

Date
06/2007

Edition
Ed 2

Page
6

All rights reserved. Passing on and copying of this document, use and communication of its contents not permitted without written authorisation.