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Estimation of UMTS
Cell Range based upon
Link Budget.
Date, RFP#
1 Introduction
Sophisticated Network Planning tools exist today to produce accurate, detailed predictions of UMTS
coverage and capacity performance. The accuracy of these tools is heavily dependant on the effort
spent configuring the parameters to match the geographic location and proposed network topology.
This is an extremely time consuming and complex process that can require multiple iterations.
In the initial stages of a network design it can be more effective to produce quick budgetary designs
that may be used to estimate initial Capital Expenditure and facilitate business modelling. A
practical method of constructing a budgetary design is to determine the cell radius for sites in
different environments and then use this to determine the total number of sites required for the total
area to be covered.
The effective cell range of a site under certain conditions can be approximated using a Link Budget
calculation. Link budgets may be produced independently for the Uplink and the Downlink in order
to determine the maximum allowable pathloss to meet certain specifications. Pathloss can then be
substituted into a standard propagation model to estimate the cell range.
Supplementary to providing an estimate of the number of sites required, for a given set of
conditions, calculating the cell range will determine whether the Uplink or the Downlink is the
limiting link. Comparing cell ranges for different conditions provides a quick method of analysing the
effects of changing parameters such as coverage criteria or site configurations.
Clutter types can generally be split up into groups based on the number of subscribers per Km2 and
building height and density.
• High dense urban clutter types have the most subs/ Km2 and a high density of building(s)
in a small area. Buildings are typically tall.
• Rural clutter types have the lowest subs/ Km2. Buildings are generally sparsely distributed.
Once the area to be simulated has been assigned clutter types, the environments can be defined.
Figure 1 shows an example of a clutter map. The different colours represent the different clutter
types.
Motorola has produced many curve sets from both link level simulations and equipment
measurements. Error: Reference source not found shows a summary of a small set of measured
Eb/No values for the Node B.
In Table 3, the value of 1.7dB was used corresponding to 64kbit/s, Pedestrian A model at 3km/hr.
Table 2: Summary of measured Uplink Eb/No values
BLER=1% Ped. A 3km/hr Veh. A 50km/hr Veh. A 120km/hr
12.2k 5.0 6.0 6.4
64k 1.7 2.7 2.9
128k 1.6 2.6 2.8
384k 3.7 5.1 5.2
Figure 2: Fade margin variation for various UMTS cell coverage reliabilities
For example with 8dB standard deviation, a cell coverage reliability of 95% requires a fade
margin of 8.6dB to be added to the link budget. In dense Urban environments, higher standard
deviation such as 10dB may be used. This requires 11.7dB fade margin for 95% cell coverage
reliability, thus reducing the cell range significantly.
Table 3: Uplink Dense Urban Link Budget for Indoor 64 kbit/s Coverage
Parameter Unit Parameter Definition Value
Chip Rate C/s a 3840000
Bit Rate bit/s b 64000
Base Station Noise Figure dB c 3.5
K J/K d 1.381e-23
T K e 290
kT dB/Hz f = 10 * Log(d.e) -204.0
kTW dB g = 10 * Log(a.d.e) -138.1
NthW dB h=c+g -134.6
Base Ant. Gain dBi I 18
Mobile Ant. Gain dBi j 0
Body Loss dB k 2
Building/Vehicle Penetration Loss dB m 18
Base Cable Loss dB N 3.5
Total Effective Gain - antennas dB p=i+j–k–m-n -5.5
Mean Noise Rise dB q 3.0
Average Eb/No (1% FER) dB r 1.7
Processing Gain dB s = 10 * Log (a / b ) 17.8
BTS Rx sensitivity dBm u = f + 10*Log(b)+30+r+c -120.7
Soft Handoff Gain dB v 2.0
Max Power for UE dBW w -11.0
Shadow Fade Margin (single cell) dB x 5.4
Table 4: Downlink Dense Urban Link Budget for Indoor 128 kbit/s Coverage
Parameter Unit Parameter Definition Value
Chip Rate C/s a 3840000
Bit Rate bit/s b 128000
Base Station Noise Figure dB c 7.0
K J/K d 1.381e-23
T K e 290
kT dB/Hz f = 10 * Log(d.e) -204.0
kTW dB g = 10 * Log(a.d.e) -138.1
NthW dB h=c+g -131.1
Base Ant. Gain dBi i 18
Mobile Ant. Gain dBi j 0
Body Loss dB k 2
Building/Vehicle Penetration Loss dB m 18
Base Cable Loss dB n 3.5
Total Effective Gain – antennas dB p=i+j–k–m-n -5.5
Mean Noise Rise dB q 6.0
Average Eb/No (1% FER) dB r 4.2
Processing Gain dB s = 10 * Log (a / b ) 14.8
BTS Rx sensitivity dBm u = f + 10*Log(b)+30+r+c -111.7
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Soft Handoff Gain dB v 2.0
Power for UE DL connection dBW w 3.0
Shadow Fade Margin (single cell) dB x 5.4
The link budgets parameters are used to calculate the maximum allowable pathloss for the
specified conditions at the edge of the cell. These are given in Table 5.
3 Propagation Models
Propagation models provide a mathematical formula that can be solved to provide the cell range.
Due to the deterministic nature of the models they are generally only valid over a certain range and
therefore cannot be generally applied to all situations. For UMTS modelling there are two main
models.
I. Modified Hata COST231 for cell ranges over greater than 1km.
II. COST 231 Walfish-Ikegami for cell ranges less than 1km
The basic propagation model used for UMTS is the COST 231 Hata model for frequencies above
1500MHz. This model is detailed in the ETSI GSM specification TR 101 362 V6.0.1 (1987-07).
While Hata’s standard equations are for use up to 1000MHz, COST 231 modifies Hata’s
equations to cover propagation losses for systems operating between 1500 and 2000 MHz. Also,
strictly speaking, Hata’s model is basically for cell ranges greater than 1km and therefore, an
alternative propagation model is included for cell ranges below 1km.
• f = frequency (MHz)
• Hm = mobile station antenna height (m)
• Hb = base station antenna height (m)
• d = distance (km)
Mobile correction factor, A (Hm) = {1.1Log (f) – 0.7} * Hm - 1.56 Log (f) – 0.8
The following example is based on using a macro base station. The assumptions made for the
macro base station are provided:
Using these numbers, the above equation for Lp yields the following simple equations for each
environment:Error: Reference source not found
Table 6: Summary of COST231 Propagation Model Values
Lp refers to the propagation loss between the base station antenna and the mobile station
antenna and can be calculated from the link budget. ’d’ is the distance between the UE and Node
B antennae. Thus once the propagation loss is calculated for a certain environment, the variable
‘d’ can be obtained to establish the maximum range of the cell.
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The propagation loss Lp must be derived for each specific case using a standard link budget
calculation. These equations may be used for macro cells only and not micro or pico cells.
In the propagation loss table, the COST 231 Hata equation for Dense urban environments is:
Therefore, in a dense urban environment, for 64 kbit/s service, the maximum indoor range of a tri-
sectored cell with 50% mean loading is 0.50 km.
The model has only been considered for cases where the Node B antenna is above the average
building height to simplify the examples shown. All the terms in the equation for Lmsd have
variable values depending upon antenna height relative to roof height.
Lmsd = -18 * log (11) + 54 + 18 * log (d) – 2.34 * log (1940) – 9 * log (30) = 14.27 + 18 * log (d)
Uplink Pathloss, Lb = 98.2 + 20 * log (d) + 31.55 + 14.27 + 18 * log (d) = 144.0 + 38 * log (d)
As before, with the Hata Model, the pathloss calculated from the link budget can be substituted
into this equation in order to estimate the maximum cell range.
This alternative (COST 231 Walfish-Ikegami) model has produced a cell range of 0.37km compared
to the range of 0.50km obtained with the COST 231 Hata model.
It is recommended that the Hata model is used only for Suburban and rural environments where cell
ranges greater than 1km are predicted.