LTE CELL Planning

Frequency Planning
 Process for Planning the LTE Network
Information Coverage area, Radio environment
Collection User Number, Traffic Model,
Service QoS
Available frequency and bandwidth

Link Budget
Pre-Planning Network Dimensioning
Output: site number, ideal site location
General Process
Detailed Simulation based on surveyed site parameter
Planning Output: Engineering parameter table,
Coverage prediction, etc

Cell Planning

Frequency ID and TA PCI NB Cell X2 PRACH

Planning Name Planning Planning Planning Planning Planning
Planning
 Frequency Planning
1x1 frequency Planning
LTE system works on the same frequency band
Frequency bandwidth utilizing is high
X Interference occurs between the UEs on the edge of a cell
(use same resource)

1x3 frequency Planning

LTE system works on the three frequency band
X Frequency bandwidth utilizing is Low
Interference can be decreased
(the three sector of one site working on three different frequency band)
 Frequency Planning

Example at Band 40 TDD

PCI Planning
 PCI Planning
In LTE systems, each cell has a physical cell identifier (PCI), enabling UE to differentiate radio signals
of different cells.
In LTE systems, cells are grouped. primary synchronization code (PSC) and secondary
synchronization code (SSC), where the PSC has three values and SSC has 168 values, totaling 504
PCIs.
The secondary synchronization sequence on the secondary synchronization channel (SSCH)
determines the cell group ID ( )
The primary synchronization sequence on the primary synchronization channel (PSCH)
determines the cell ID in a cell group. ( )
 PCI Planning
Planning principles
Availability: The PCI planning must ensure minimum reuse layers and minimum reuse distance to
avoid possible conflict.
Extensibility: The initial planning must consider the future capacity expansion to avoid frequent
adjustment of the initial planning result. Some PCI groups and some PCIs of in-use PCI groups can
be reserved for future capacity expansion.

Criteria for assigning the PCIs

Reuse distance: The distance of two cells using the same PCI must meet the minimum reuse distance.
Reuse layers: The number of reuse layers refers to the number of eNodeBs separating the two cells
using the same PCI.
Under normal dual-antenna configuration, separating the PCIs of neighboring cells by modulo 3 of the
PCIs can separate the downlink RS symbols in the frequency domain, improving the accuracy of
channel estimation.
 PCI Mod 3 RS shift among neighbor cells
Frequency domain location of the RS is determined by value of PCI mod 3
If RS is shifted, then it will help for better performance under low load

RS location vs PCI mod 3:

1 Antenna
PCI Mod 3 RS shift among neighbor cells
Port

RS pattern for No. of

No. of RS per Ant No. of RS for all Ant No. of RS for all Ant ports
port per RB within ports per RB within in all RBs within one
Antenna port
different Antenna one Symbol one Symbol Symbol

configuration 1 2 2 2* Total No. of RB

2 2 4 4* Total No. of RB
4 2 4 4* Total No. of RB
RE
2 Antenna
ports

No RS transmit For 4*4 MIMO, the RS of Antenna 3, 4 are

for this antenna port
RS transmitted transmitted on OFDM symbols different to
or this antenna port
that of Antenna 1, 2
4 Antenna
ports

R1: RS transmitted by ant 1

R2: RS transmitted by ant 2
R3: RS transmitted by ant 3
R4: RS transmitted by ant 4

Antenna Port 0 Antenna Port 1 Antenna Port 2 Antenna Port 3

 PCI Mod 3 Planning
Before After

We need to check again about PCI Mod3 result, prevent co-

channel interference from same Mod3 result.
PCI Conflict
PCI conflict is classified into PCI collision and PCI confusion
PCI Collision
A PCI collision occurs between two or more intra-frequency cells that
use an identical PCI but are insufficiently isolated.

In this case, UEs in the overlapping area of the two cells cannot
implement signal synchronization or decoding.

A PCI confusion occurs between a detected cell and a neighboring cell if the two
cells have the same frequency and PCI and if the reference signal received
PCI Confusion power (RSRP) of the two cells reaches the handover threshold.
The PCI confusion may lead to UE handover failures or service drops.

Case :
eNodeB mistakenly considers that the detected cell is cell C and then initiates a
handover to cell C. If the spot that the UE is on is not covered by cell C but cell
B, a handover failure may occur.
If two or more neighboring cells of a cell have the same frequency and PCI,
there is a PCI conflict between these neighboring cells
 PCI Planning Example
PCI group code from 120 to 167 for IBC eNodeB
PCI 360 to 503
Propose 25% buffer for future expansion (468 to 503 reserved for future)
PCI group code from 0 to 119 for Outdoor eNodeB
PCI 0 to 359
Propose 25% buffer for future expansion (270 to 359 reserved for future)
Planning rule
To reduce PCI mod 3 result competition among neighboring cells to get better
performance under low load situation (referring to following 2 slides)
To avoid PCI mod 30 result competition among neighboring cells to avoid SRS
interfere neighbor cell PRACH
How to Plan PCI Manually
Assume there is a new site insert into existing area

Step 1. Mark the PCI Mod 3 results of existing cells on the

map.

Step 2. Decide the PCI Mod 3 result for the new site on the
map. Try the best to avoid same result cover same area.

Step 3. Choose un-used PCI for the new site following the
PCI mod 3 result. New PCI shall not same to any neighbor
cell.
PCI Plan
Sector 1 Sector 2 Sector 3
SSS/PSS 0 1 2 Allocation For Border East
3 4 5
1 - 140 Macro (General)

.
420 421 422
333 334 335
Border Area
111 - 125
.

.
WEST/NORTH
375 376 377 Border West
378 379 380
Border Area
126 - 140
.

.
EAST/SOUTH
420 421 422
423 424 425
141 - 160 Indoor (General)
.

.
480 481 482
483 484 485
161 - 167 Spare
.

501 502 503

PRACH Planning
 PRACH Planning Basic Concept
PRACH ( Physical Random Access Channel)
The channel used for transmitting the preamble sequence which is needed during UE random
access

ZC root Sequence
a Zadoff Chu sequence has good self-correlation and cross correlation.
There are 838 ZC root sequences, each 838 ZC root sequence is 839 bit
The ZC sequence is used as the PRACH root sequence

Preamble sequence
Preamble sequences of cells are generated through the cyclic shift of the ZC root sequence.
The number of cyclic shift is Ncs
 PRACH Planning Principle

There are 64 PRACH preambles in each LTE cell for Random Access. It is for users randomly selects a
preamble sequence to establish initial connection.
Preambles are generated from root sequence (Zadoff-Chu sequence) and its cyclic shift
838 root sequences are defined by 3GPP with length 839
For example: for Cyclic Shift step 76, so-call Ncs = 76
Each root sequence can generate Rounddown(839/76) = 11 sequences
To Generate 64 sequences, number of root sequences needed = Roundup(64/11) = 6
So available root sequences = Rounddown (838/6) = 139 (Index 0, 6, 12, 18, )
Root sequence needs to be reuse in the network
Unlike UMTS, there isnt Cell ID related scramble code used for PRACH in LTE system, collision may occur
if same root sequence is planned for PRACH among nearby cells.
Thus, we need to plan PRACH root sequence.
PRACH Planning
Step 1: Determine Ncs value by the cell radius. (E.g. Assume the cell radius is 9.8 km, take Ncs
value 76)
Step 2: The value of 839/76 is rounded down to 11, that is, each index should generate 11
preamble sequences. In this case, 6 (64/11) root sequence indexes are required to generate 64
preamble sequences.
Step 3: The number of available root sequence indexes is 839/6=139 (0, 6, 12,,6*n,, 828)
Step 4: The available root sequence indexes are assigned to cells. The reuse distance shall be as
far as possible
Huawei will use GENEX U-Net for PRACH planning or using Atoll
PRACH Planning Example
TA Planning
 Tracking Area Planning Principles
A Tracking Area corresponds to the Routing Area (RA) used in UMTS and GSM/Edge Radio Access
Network (URAN and GERAN). The TA consists of a cluster of eNodeBs having the same Tracking
Area Code (TAC)
The TA provides a way to track UE location in idle mode. UE will initials TAL update once cross the
TAL barder in idle mode and will not when cross TA boarder
TAL information is used by the MME when paging idle UE to notify them of incoming data
connections
One TAL can support up to 16 TAs, each TA supports maximum 100 eNodeB in one MME
TAC = Tracking Area Code (1~65533, and 65535) (0 and
65534 are reserved by 3GPP)
TAI = Tracking Area ID = MCC + MNC + TAC
TAL = Tracking Area List
1 TAL = up to 16 TAC
TAL value range: 0~ 65534
Max number of TALs per USN = 20000
 TA Planning Principle
A TA should be medium. The limitations by the EPC must be considered.
When the suburban area and urban area are covered discontinuously, an independent TA is used
for the suburban area.
TA should be planned for a continuous geographical area to avoid TA discrete distribution.
The paging area cannot be located in different MMEs.
The mountain or river in the planned area can be used as TA boundary to reduce the overlapping
depth of two TAs. In this way, fewer location updates are performed on the edge of TA.
The LAC planning in the existing 2G/3G networks can serve as a reference for planning TAC
 TA Network Design

One TAL is same with one TAC, with this design when the UE in idle condition Internet S-GW MME
then move to another TAC it will be generate TAU to report MME where
is last position for this UE. When there is downlink packet data need to
TAU
be deliver for that UE, MME can easily to find latest position.

TAU Procedure
TAC 2
The tracking area update (TAU) procedure is triggered if one of the following
conditions is met:
TAC 1 TAC 4
The UE detects that the current TA does not exist in the TA list on the
UE-registered network.
TAC 3
It is a periodic TAU.
The TAU procedure is triggered during a handover procedure.
On an EPS network, the basic unit of location management is TA List. A
TA List consists of one or multiple TAs. A TA list prevents a UE from
initiating the TAU procedure frequently
 TA Network Design

Internet S-GW MME

One TAL contains multiple TAC, with this design when UE in idle condition
move to different TAC under one TAL there is no TAU. When MME want to Under
UE move
One TAL
to
deliver downlink packet data for that UE MME will send to latest TAC where new
no need
TAL TAU
need
TAU
the UE located. If the UE is unreachable MME will try to paging another TAC
under one TAL until found. This design will take a time compare with the TAL 1
previous design. TAC 2

TAC 1 TAC 4

TAC 3

Last TAC is 8
but UE move to
TAC 7, MME
will try paging
TAL 2 another TAC
TAC 6 under TAL2

TAC 5 TAC 8

TAC 7
Neighbor Planning
 Neighbor Cell Planning
LTE Network require quick hard handover, so the Neighboring cell Planning is very important

LTE Neighboring cell planning content : Intra-Freq Neighboring cell, Inter-freq neighboring cell,
Inter-RAT neighboring Cell

LTE neighboring cell Planning principle :

Geographically adjacent cell are used as neighboring cell
in common scenario, bidirectional neighboring relationship is configured
The distance between eNB is small (0.3 1km ) in urban areas, and therefore a large number of
neighboring cell are recommended
If the adjacent cell of a cell in front of a lake, sea, or a wide road is also in front of the lake, sea or a
wide road, the adjacent cell is configured as its neighboring cell.
 Neighbor Cell Planning
The method of LTE neighbor cell planning is similar to neighbor planning of GSM/WCDMA/CDMA.
Currently, the planning method and tool for LTE are available.
The configuration is different from GSM/WCDMA/CDMA . There is no BSC/RNC in the LTE system. When
an eNB cell is configured as neighbor cells of other eNBs, external cells must be added first, which is
similar to the scenario where inter-BSC/RNC neighbor cells are configured on the BSC. That is, neighbor
cells can be configured only after the corresponding cell information is added.
Site A
A1 Neighbor Cell List
A3
(NCL)
Site B
B3 B1 Source Target
A2
A B1
A B2
B2
A B3
B A1
Site A B A2
A1
B A3
A3
Site B
B3 B1
A2

B2