I declare that this report is my own work. No other person is allowed to copy or publish a
copy of it.
I also declare that this report was prepared according to the rules and regulations of University
of Dar es Salaam.
Signature_________________
Date______________________
Page i
Abstract
Telecommunications sector is among the fast growing sectors in our country and it has proved
to be very important in our daily activities such as mobile communication and data services.
This report consists of two main parts which are the process and the conclusion and
recommendations.
The process part explains about GSM Radio Network Planning, which involves all plans and
designs that are needed in terms of coverage and capacity which results to a good quality
network performance and cost-effective one.
The last chapter brings out the conclusion on the whole practical training process as well as
the topic explained on chapter one. Also there are some recommendations that I suggest so as
to improve this activity.
Together with the main report I have also attached the weekly reports for all the eight weeks
of my practical training at MIC Tanzania Company.
It is my hope that, anyone who will read this report will have a clear understanding about the
GSM networks and GSM Radio Network Planning. Also in it, people could understand
various steps that are taken during the planning process toward the completion of an optimal
networks.
Page ii
Acknowledgement
Firstly I would like to thank our almight God for providing me with good health during the
whole period of my training.
I would like to acknowledge the College of Information and Communication Technology for
set up practical training sessions which in one way enable us to know what is going on in
industry. Practical Training has made us being familiar with operations and actual job
environment.
Special thanks to MIC Tanzania ( Tigo ) for providing me a chance to work with, and learn a
lot of things concerning Telecommunications Industry.
I would like to thank Engineer Victor M Makula, Tigos Transimission and Site Engineer in
Dar Es Salaam for accepting me and my colleagues to work with him. He is a very
experienced and competent engineer and for sure I have learned many things from you
brother. Big up to you and thank you very much for letting me do various system
configurations.
I would also like to thank Engineer Marco, Tigos Transimission and Site Engineer Engineer
also in Dar Es Salaam region for teaching me many issues concerning Telecommunications.
By working with him I have learned a lot. Thank you for letting me do various system
configurations.
Thanks to all Transmission and Sites maintenence staffs, Engineer Renatus, Engineer Harlod
Madeha and others for working with me in site troubleshooting and maintenence.
I would like to thank my practical training supervisor from University of Dar-es-salaam
(CoICT), Mr. Daudi for his kindness, understanding and readable advice.
Lastly, My appreciation goes to all my fellow practical training students for their positive
cooperation towards completion of this report.
Page iii
Preface
This report contains information which aim at providing the clear picture on how the whole
process of GSM radio network planning is carried. Whether aimed at coverage, capacity or
frequency optimization, this report provide the all neccesary steps that are followed in the
planning process toward the completion of project.
All of these information are related to the departments of Planning and Transmission in the
MIC Tigo company where i did my practical training III. Special regards to all who helped me
in accomplishing this report writting, whether by teaching me or giving me some advices.
Page iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION ............................................................................................................. i
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................... ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................ iii
PREFACE ...................................................................................................................... iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ................................................... vii
Page v
CHAPTER TWO...........................................................................................................19
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ......................................................19
2.1 Conclusions ...........................................................................................................19
2.2 Recommendations .................................................................................................19
REFERENCES ..............................................................................................................20
Page vi
MIC
TCRA
QoS
Quality of Services
MS:
Mobile Station
BSS:
SS:
Switching Subsystem
GSM:
UDSM:
MSC:
HLR:
VLR:
EIR:
AUC:
Authentification Centre
BTS:
BSC:
OMC:
NMC:
Page vii
Chapter One
1:0 Introduction
Since the early days of GSM development, GSM system network planning has undergone
extensive modification so as to fulfill the ever-increasing demand from operators and mobile
users with issues related to capacity and coverage. Radio network planning is perhaps the
most important part of the whole design process owing to its proximity to mobile users.
The main aim of radio network planning is to provide a cost-effective solution for the radio
network in terms of coverage, capacity and quality. The network planning process and design
criteria vary from region to region depending upon the dominating factor, which could be
capacity or coverage. The design process itself is not the only process in the whole network
design, and has to work in close coordination with the planning processes of the core and
especially the transmission network.
This project focus on how MIC deals with the planning and optimizing of the very few
resources available so as to come up with an optimal network which will minimize the
operation cost while keeping the Quality of Service delivered to the customers high.
It is the job of Tigos Planning Department with some little cooperation from other
departments to carry the whole planning process and optimization.. After various
measurements and research the proposed solution come into implementation such as new BTS
site installation, or increasing number of E1 in the site and so on.
Therefore network planning can be described briefly as all the activities involved in
determining which sites will be used for the radio equipment, which equipments will be used,
and how the equipments will be configured. In order to ensure good coverage and to avoid
interference, every cellular network needs planning.
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Another advantage of the SIM card is the mobility of the users. In fact, the only element that
personalizes a terminal is the SIM card.
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The BTS corresponds to the transceivers and antennas used in each cell of the network. A
BTS is usually placed in the center of a cell. Its transmitting power defines the size of a cell.
Each BTS has between one and sixteen transceivers depending on the density of users in the
cell.
The Base Station Controller (BSC):
The BSC controls a group of BTS and manages their radio resources. A BSC is principally in
charge of handovers, frequency hopping, exchange functions and control of the radio
frequency power levels of the BTSs.
It is the central component of the NSS. The MSC performs the switching functions of the
network. It also provides connection to other networks.
The Gateway Mobile services Switching Center (GMSC):
A gateway is a node interconnecting two networks. The GMSC is the interface between the
mobile cellular network and the PSTN. It is in charge of routing calls from the fixed network
towards a GSM user. The GMSC is often implemented in the same machines as the MSC.
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The HLR is considered as a very important database that stores information of the subscribers
belonging to the covering area of a MSC. It also stores the current location of these
subscribers and the services to which they have access.
Visitor Location Register (VLR):
The VLR contains information from a subscriber's HLR necessary in order to provide the
subscribed services to visiting users. When a subscriber enters the covering area of a new
MSC, the VLR associated to this MSC will request information about the new subscriber to
its corresponding HLR. The VLR will then have enough information in order to assure the
subscribed services without needing to ask the HLR each time a communication is
established.
The VLR is always implemented together with a MSC; so the area under control of the MSC
is also the area under control of the VLR.
The Authentication Center (AUC)
The AUC register is used for security purposes. It provides the parameters needed for
authentication and encryption functions. These parameters help to verify the user's identity.
The Equipment Identity Register (EIR)
The EIR is also used for security purposes. It is a register containing information about the
mobile equipments. More particularly, it contains a list of all valid terminals. A terminal is
identified by its International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI). The EIR allows then to
forbid calls from stolen or unauthorized terminals
The GSM Interworking Unit (GIWU)
The GIWU corresponds to an interface to various networks for data communications. During
these communications, the transmission of speech and data can be alternated.
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To be able to penetrate the African mobile market TIGO has elected to supply a high quality
network wherever coverage is claimed. The main targets for the radio planning team are to
provide:
Good coverage
Sufficient capacity
High Quality (High Accessibility, Retainability and Availability KPIs)
Achieve the above 3 targets with optimized CAPEX deployment
In order to plan a good coverage simultaneously optimizing capacity and maximizing quality,
the radio system planning process and key parameters for this process have to be clearly
defined. The overall steps for radio network planning are then:
1) Dimensioning
2) Detailed radio system planning and
3) Optimization, each with a specific purpose.
The dimensioning is required to generally analyze the network configuration and to decide the
radio network deployment strategy. The more accurate the dimension is, the more efficient
will be network rollout. In the detailed radio system planning phase, the radio network is
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accurately designed and the radio network evolution requirements are considered in the
optimization and monitoring phase.
The quality of coverage is considered as acceptable if a commercial quality can be ensured in
90% of locations for an identified class.
The following table provides some recommended values of the parameters to be taken into
account during radio design activities.
1:5:1 Dimensioning
The dimensioning exercise is to identify the equipment and the network type(i.e. technology
employed). Several traffic forecasts scenarios should be made to determine how to exceed the
coverage thresholds (in a new network) or the traffic history over the area has to be studied to
identify the traffic increases during the next years(in an existing network). For an efficient
network rollout, the equipment has to be ordered well before the planning starts (i.e. after
dimensioning), as the equipment orders are placed based on the dimensioning results.
Planning engineers should try to do very realistic/accurate dimensioning for each cell site.
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In order to study the coverage and capacity requirements for a specific area, it should be taken
into account:
For the coverage and capacity analysis it should be taken into account:
With the above parameters, the radio planner can predict the number of base stations that will
be required for coverage in the specified area to meet the individual quality targets, and to
meet the expected increase in traffic in the next few years.
1:5:2 Radio Network Detailed Planning
With the aim of MIC of designing a cost-efficient and high Quality of Service(QoS) radio
network, in this phase, the respective design and implementation are made. In order to achieve
the required goals for coverage and capacity it is necessary to choose and carefully plan the
following aspects:
Configuration planning
Coverage planning
Capacity and frequency planning
Parameter planning
Configuration planning:
The base station has to be configured based on both coverage and capacity requirements; the
required capacity features define the capacity related base station site elements(combiners
etc.) and the required coverage or dominance area defines the need for other coverage related
equipments(eg. Antenna gain, low noise amplifier(LNA), power amplifier(PA), diversity
reception).
As a result of configuration planning the base station site type(macro, micro, indoor), base
station antenna line(antenna height, single-, multi- band) and base station
coverage/dominance(services), for different areas and environments have to be defined.
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Coverage planning:
Configuration planning defines the base station site equipment for different environments.
The aim of coverage planning is to use the dimensioning results and the configurations
defined in the configuration planning to minimize the number of base station sites.
To begin with, environment limitations such as high buildings, hills or other obstacles are
considered in coverage area survey. The survey initially defines the critical base station site
locations and suggests strategies to cover the area. Then propagation measurements need to be
analyzed unless and only if there are measurements available about the area already. These
measurements are required to tune the radio propagation prediction model which is extremely
important when considering capacity and frequency planning along with the functions of the
radio network.
The candidate base station site locations are then defined. The site locations are called
candidate because there are no rental contracts yet for the sites and thus hypothetical site
locations have to be used based on the site survey, measurement and propagation prediction
results. Note that site contract negotiations and site construction take an average 4-6 months
and thus the measurements and candidate site selections and the whole coverage planning
process have to be started approximately 12 months before the launch of the planned sites
moreover, the process has to be initiated with the measurements because only they can ensure
accurate coverage planning.
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Actual coverage planning contains the radio parameter input, radio prediction model set-up
and coverage area calculation for each base station. Parameter input includes all the required
parameters (calculated in the power budget-path loss and received power, cell range, coverage
threshold) to define either the optimized downlink or uplink transmission power from the base
station or mobile station antenna. Radio coverage planning is traditionally calculated in
planning systems (advanced software programs) in the downlink direction from the base
station transmitter to the mobile station antenna by defining the
Base station transmission power
Base station equipment and antenna line losses(combiner loss, cable loss)
Base station antenna height, direction, gain and tilting if it is used.
The radio propagation prediction model is then checked once more and tuned and finally the
base station coverage area is calculated by using the input parameter prediction model and
digital maps.
The last phase in coverage planning is to define the final coverage thresholds and the
coverage areas where these certain thresholds have to be covered. These thresholds also
finally define the coverage maximum distance between two base station sites.
Capacity and frequency planning:
Capacity planning is a very important process in the network rollout as it defines the number
of base stations required and their respective capacities. The number of base stations required
in an area comes from the coverage planning, and the number of transceivers required is
derived from capacity planning as it is directly associated with the frequency re-use factor.
The frequency re-use factor is defined as the number of base stations that can be implemented
before the frequency can be re-used. There are three essential parameters required for capacity
planning: estimated traffic, average antenna height, and frequency usage.
Traffic estimates:
If the average antenna height is low, then the covered area is small in an urban environment.
This will lead to the creation of more cells, and hence increase the number of times the same
frequency can be re-allocated. Exactly the opposite is the case in a macro-cellular
environment. Here the coverage area would be more, so the same frequency can be
Mngongo Josephat; 2009-04-03293; UDSM
Page 10
reallocated fewer times. All these calculations are based on the interference analysis of the
system as well as the topography and propagation conditions.
Frequency Usage and Re-use:
Frequency usage is an important concept related to both coverage and capacity usage.
Frequency re-use basically means how often a frequency can be re-used in the network. If the
average number of the transceivers and the total number of frequencies are known, the
frequency re-use factor can be calculated.
Example: Frequency re-use factor
If there are 3 TRX that are used per base station and the total number of frequencies
available is 27, then the total number of frequencies available for re-use is 27/3 = 9.
A good frequency plan ensures that frequency channels are used in such a way that the
capacity and coverage criteria are met without any interference. This is because the total
capacity in a radio network in terms of the number of sites is dependent upon two factors:
transmission power and interference. The re-use of the BCCH TRX (which contains the
signalling time slots) should be greater than that of the TCHs, since it should be the most
interference-free.
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Defining areas of coverage for each base station and defining a search area in the
centre of each coverage area
Using a planning tool for first approach, but it is also essential to do a field exploration
When an existent network (capacity or coverage gap) is upgraded, the following steps must be
taken into account.
Performing a drive test
Identifying the gaps and congested areas
Defining a search area in the centre of each spot
Using a planning tool for first approach, but it is also essential to do a field exploration
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Page 17
START
DIMENSIONING
CONFIGURAT
ION
PLANNING
COVERAGE
PLANNING
DETAILED
PLANNING
CAPACITY &
FREQUENCY
PLANNING
OPTIMIZATION
& MONITORING
SEARCH AREA
MAP
SITE
CANDIDATES
SITE SURVEY
& REPORT
PARAMETER
PLANNING
SITE
DEFINITION
SITE
ACQUISATIO
N
END
Page 18
Chapter Two
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
3.1 Conclusions:
Conclusively my training period was successfully attained. There are many things that we
actually learn theoretical that in application mean different that in my point of view I advice
all higher learning institutions to allow their students to undertake practical training before
they are employed.
Radio network planning widened up my knowledge about GSM networks. The doubts I had
about how networks works especially how subscribers receive the services and on how the
operators ensure good performance of the networks were cleared. On top of that I got to learn
deep about 3G networks and gladly now I can compare it with GSM networks and tell the
difference.
Despite of the few problems that were faced during the field program, overall the field went
well and there is so much that I have learned and I am glad I have something that would help
me in my future career as a telecommunication engineer.
3.2 Recommendations:
Despite of learning a lot of interesting things during my time at Practical training, I would like
to recommend on the following:
Firstly ETE department must increase its effort in finding practical training places for its
students. Communication companies are good for practical training because I saw that there
are for real a lot of practical works to be done and there are so many applications of the
theoretical knowledge that we get in lectures. I therefore recommend that; students should be
streamed more into communication companies during PT period.
Secondly for the case of the company it should provide more rooms for technical training
such as preparing the training schemes.
Third, regulations and guidelines for practical training, especially in report writing must be
revised. This will help students to come up with better reports especially P.T 3 reports which
must be different from P.T1 & P.T2.
Lastly apart from having an interview with our supervisors as the only way of judging
individuals P.T performance, our supervisors can try to observe how we do perform different
activities during the training period.
Page 19
REFERENCES:
An introduction to GSM networks from the book Cellular Radio Systems. Edited by
Balston and Macario and published by Artech House.
Ericsson networks manuals.
http://tigo.co.tz/.
Information from engineer Victor, engineer Renatus and Marco. Also information from the
plannings staffs.
Pocket Guide for Fundamentals and GSM Testing, Marc Kahabka, Wandel & Goltermann
GmbH & Co.
Radio Engineering Guidelines, Ericsson International, Aug 2006.
Second-generation Radio Network Planning and Optimization, WU097-Mishra, WU097Mishra February 23, 2004.
The GSM tutorial, Web document found in: http:/www.iec.org.
TIGO company manual.
Page 20
WEEKLY
REPORTS
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