GSM Cell Planning

3 days

Introduction
Introducing Network Planning, the Planning cycle and requirements. Company strategy is considered to identify practical issues such as coverage, implementation, additional services, ‘back haul’, equipment, optimisation and billing.

Vital Issues
GSM technology imposes limits, so planning has to be done within these limits. Discussed here are the frequency spectrum, various channel structures (such as physical, traffic and control), reporting, timing advance, dBs, cell selection, C1 and C2 calculations, power budget and analysis.

RF Coverage (Part 1)
Mobile networks are governed by the properties of radio transmission through the air – RF coverage. This chapter is the first of two chapters dealing with this issue. Here we will discuss RF propagation, various loss factors, propagation modelling, link budgets, fading, multipath loss and diversity techniques such as antenna polarisation.

RF Coverage (Part 2)
Continuing the subject of RF coverage, this chapter will discuss frequency hopping, time diversity, interference, power control, DTX, planning rollout and coverage. Various antenna types are introduced, as well as fibre distribution links. The chapter closes with a look at the transmitter and receiver chains.

Implementation Planning (Part 1)
Again, this subject covers two chapters. In this first part the issue of cell sizing is considered. This starts with traffic engineering and grade of service (GoS). At this point there is an exercise in traffic calculation. Traffic patterns are discussed, leading on to cell and network sizing. The three cell sizes are defined. The chapter ends by introducing network planning tools and transmission drive testing.

Implementation Planning (Part 2)
In this part we deal with frequency allocation and re-use patterns. Also covered are capacity issues, backhaul, the A-bis interface and E1 (2.048Mbps) structure. There is an exercise on ‘backhaul’ and a mention of physical site selection constraints.

Optimisation and Statistics
Covers cell identification, BSIC, control channels, capacity enhancement, multilayering, the use of microcells, concentric and extended range cells, congestion relief, frequency hopping and statistics recording.

Future Developments
This introduces HSCSD, GPRS, EDGE, GERAN, UMTS, CDMA and VoIP.

Exercises
You develop a Cell Structure for a hypothetical area.