2G/3G Indoor Coverage Planning

Course Overview

Customers of mobile networks expect to have reliable coverage and adequate capacity wherever they are. This means that all operators need to provide 2G and 3G indoor coverage in key locations as a high-priority planning goal. Indoor coverage planning is significantly different from general coverage planning and requires a different skill set.

This course provides the extra knowledge and skills that UMTS and GSM cell planners need to expand their capabilities into the indoor environment. Students will learn how 2G and 3G traffic characteristics vary for indoor cells and how this impacts the chosen solution and cell configuration. The course covers indoor propagation prediction and site survey strategies. This leads into coverage techniques based on copper and fibre distributed antenna systems and radiating cables. Students will learn how to determine the most appropriate and cost effective coverage strategy in a range of scenarios. This is backed up with case studies and planning exercise

Audience

This course is designed for planning engineers working for network operators, cell planning consultancies or software tool manufacturers who wish to move into indoor coverage planning. Although most students attending this course will have practical planning experience it is possible to progress directly to indoor coverage planning if the theoretical knowledge is in place.

This course is also useful for students who will be working in planningrelated areas or who need to understand planning considerations. This includes network management, Government security or forensic work, legal professionals supporting network operators or local authorities, support staff and those managing planning teams

Skills Gained

On completion of this course the student will be able to:

• identify effective strategies and general procedures that enhance the indoor planning process
• identify typical 2G and 3G offered traffic levels, blocking limits and characteristics for a range of indoor coverage scenarios
• use Erlang traffic principles to arrive at suitable cell dimensions
• outline how packet data capacity can be provided in 2G cells with GPRS and in 3G cells with WCDMA and HSPA
• describe key propagation effects in buildings, tunnels and sports stadiums and identify where waveguide effects may occur
• describe typical statistical and deterministic indoor propagation models and compare their features
• explain how repeaters can be used to provide indoor coverage and calculate repeater gain
• identify indoor coverage scenarios where it would be better to use a dedicated picocell than a repeater
• discuss the design of passive and active distributed antenna systems and list factors that determine radiated power and noise contribution
• explain the design of optical fibre for distributed antenna systems and identify advantages in their use
• identify indoor coverage situations where leaky feeder can be used and calculate power levels required for leaky feeder systems
• perform link budget and balancing calculations on typical indoor coverage systems
• describe how indoor cells can be integrated into the wider coverage network

Examinations

N/A

Prerequisites

Ideally, students will have a good understanding of UMTS and GSM air interface operation and an appreciation or experience of cell planning for both technologies. For students without this prerequisite knowledge, attendance on our UMTS Air Interface, GSM Air Interface, Cell Planning for UMTS Networks and Cell Planning for GSM Networks courses is strongly recommended.

Course Outline

Initial Planning

• The indoor design planning loop
• Shared solutions and general benefits
• Sharing for UMTS systems
• Site data and customer requirements
• Site survey

Dimensioning for Traffic

• The Erlang
• Trunking efficiency (channel utilization)
• Offered, carried and blocked traffic
• Grade of Service (GoS)
• Erlang's traffic models
• Typical voice traffic levels
• Office and corporate traffic dimensioning
• Scenarios
• Dimensioning a GSM BTS and a UMTS Node B
• UMTS cells and channel elements
• UMTS power amplifier limits
• UMTS data requirements
• Use of a cell repeater
• GSM repeater considerations
• Dimensioning for shopping centres
• Packet-switched service characteristics
• Packet data modelling
• HSDPA capacity utilisation

Indoor Propagation

• Main propagation effects
• Multipath propagation
• Radiation paths in a building
• Fast fading
• Shadow (log-normal fading)
• Rayleigh and Rician distribution
• Time dispersion
• Inter Symbol Interference (ISI)
• Delay spread for GSM and for UMTS
• Waveguides and waveguide effects
• Diffraction effects
• Indoor propagation models
• General model types
• Statistical models
• Basic power law model
• Power law example
• Modified Keenan-Motley model and example
• Deterministic models
• Ray tracing

Achieving Coverage in the Indoor Environment

• The indoor coverage paradox
• Initial coverage survey
• Measurement using a test transmitter
• Indoor antenna locations
• Indoor-outdoor demarcation
• Maintaining even coverage
• Consideration for service types
• Noise rise and load factor for UMTS
• Link budgets and load factor
• Tunnel propagation and tunnel characteristics
• Prediction
• Stadium coverage requirements
• Creating cells
• Antenna location possibilities
• Radiation limits and safety
• ICNIRP guidelines
• Considerations for indoor antennas
• Example calculations for UMTS and GSM
• Multi-operator/multi-RAT system example

Sources of RF for Indoor Coverage

• Indoor coverage methods
• The four main options
• Antenna isolation and gain setting
• UMTS Node B desensitization
• Customer repeater solutions
• Donor antenna alignment for UMTS
• Repeaters to add capacity in UMTS
• Dedicated pico cell
• Pico cell equipment and implementation options
• System type selection
• Generic radio access for indoor coverage
• The femtocell

Copper and Fibre DAS

• Antennas for indoor systems
• Distributed antennas using coaxial feeder
• More complex systems
• Series or parallel distribution
• Active systems
• Fibre optic distribution systems
• Fibre system architecture
• Indoor diversity designs
• A practical distributed antenna system
• Main factors influencing the design of a leaky feeder system
• Basic system design
• Exercise - leaky feeder
• Use of BDAs for leaky feeder
• Heathrow Airport approach tunnels - example

Integrating Indoor Cells

• Frequency planning for GSM indoor cells
• Cell reselection
• Neighbour cell relationships
• Cell selection and reselection criteria
• Handovers
• UMTS event triggers

Indoor Coverage Planning Exercise

In addition to gaining a good understanding of 2G/3G indoor coverage planning, this course will enable the student to deliver operational improvements and generate cost savings or reduce project timelines by:

• improving network design, planning, operations and maintenance
• avoiding the laborious search through specifications, standards and white papers, while benefiting from a practical analysis and interpretation of such documentation by experienced engineers
• knowing better where to look to accelerate research and fact finding and facilitate earlier project completion
• improving the equipment procurement process by better analysis and challenge of technical specifications and supplier responses, thus
• giving greater certainty to on-target performance and value-for-money purchasing
• shortening the learning curve and speeding productive inputs from new team members and freeing more experienced employees' time
• evaluating better a system's capabilities through improved knowledge, leading to superior operations and maintenance performance
• providing greater confidence in the sale of equipment by anticipating customers' technical requirements and being able to promote relevant
• superior equipment performance

Follow On Courses

Students may wish to extend their planning skills into optimization by attending the Introduction to GSM Optimization or Introduction to UMTS Optimisation courses. Others may extend the range of their knowledge of radio access technologies with the HSPA Principles and Application or the WiMAX Engineering Overview courses. SDH Principles, ATM Principles, TCP/IP Protocol Suite, or MPLS Overview may interset those involved in terrestrial communications links for radio.

2G/3G Indoor Coverage Planning / MB2702