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Scope of the Document In a GSM network same frequencies need to be used in several BSs. This implies that in practice, every cell has other cells nearby whose radio transmission will interfere with the desired signal. Careful selection of used frequencies in each cell is needed to achieve sufficient quality in the network. This is called frequency planning. The quality of the frequency plan will affect the capacity of the network. In the network setup phase, the frequency plan has to be made based on radio wave propagation predictions and small scale ad-hoc measurements. In this work, a method to optimize an existing frequency plan in an operational GSM network is studied. The method is based on standardized functionality in GSM called mobile measurement reporting. MMRs can be stored and post-processed to obtained information about potential interference between any pair of cells in the network. In this work, the measurement based data is shown to be more accurate than what is obtained through current radio wave propagation models. There are several ways to post-process the raw data available from MMRs. The result of this processing is called an Interference Matrix. Different post-processing techniques lead to different meanings of IM elements. It is concluded in this work that frame erasure rate (FER) should be the quantity used in IM. FER is a measure that correlates strongly with subjective voice quality. The raw data from MMRs is subject to limitations mainly due to limited number of bits available for the air interface signaling. Only top six measurement values are reported. Furthermore, these values are truncated. These limitations lead to inaccuracies in the data available for frequency planning. In this thesis, the inaccuracies are found to be smaller than those in the prediction based data. GSM Channel Structure A term channel is used very loosely in GSM. It can be physical or logical. Frequency Band used by GSM Frame Structure Each burst period is roughly 577 s. 8 bursts (corresponding each to different physical channel) make up 1 TDMA frame. TDMA frames have running index (common in cell area) for each logical connection, which is used for example in encryption. 26 TDMA frames form one 26 multi-frame and 51 TDMA frames corresponding form 51 multi-frame. 26 51-multiframes constitute a super-frame, lasting about 6.2 seconds. 2048 super-frames form a hyperframe, which is the longest cycle in the GSM frame hierarchy. Normal Burst structure (there are 3 more burst types not discussed here) shown in figure 5 consists of 26 bit training sequence, which is essential for the demodulation. The original band reserved for GSM900 is from 890 MHz to 915 MHz to UL (from MS to BTS) and from 935 MHz to 960 MHz for DL. Later, to increase the capacity, GSM 1800 and EGSM900 (Extended) bands were allocated. Physical Channels The GSM uses Frequency (FDMA) and Time division (TDMA) as a multiple access technique. Spacing between GSM frequencies is 200 kHz. The time domain is split into 8 sequential slots, called Timeslots (TS). Therefore, each frequency can support up to 8 users simultaneously. Time Division also means that during a call, mobile has to transmit only 1/8th of the time. Receiving is scheduled to always happen 3 TS before transmission.

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Surrounding training sequence are the two individual bits called stealing flags. These indicate if either 57 bit information blocks is actually stolen to signaling purposes requiring quick attention, like HO commands. Both 3 bit blocks called tail bits, surrounding information bits, are always set to 0. Finally in the end of the burst, there is 8.25 bit guard period. Logical Channel

Logical channels are defined functions supported by Physical channels. Each physical channel can carry many logical channels. These can be divided to dedicated and common channels. Further division can be made between traffic and control channels. Traffic Channels (TCH) There are 2 traffic channels, TCH/F (Traffic Channel/ Full Rate) and TCH/H (Half rate). TCH/F can support

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speech at net rate of 13 kbit/s or data with rates of 2.4 kbit/s (TCH/F2.4), 4.8 kbit/s (TCH/F4.8) or 9.6 kbit/s (TCH/F9.6) and requires one physical channel. TCH/H carries speech with second generation voice coder at a net rate of 6.5 kbit/s or data with rates 2.4 kbit/s or 4.8 kbit/s. 2 TCH/Hs can occupy one physical channel. Control channels can be divided to broadcast channels (BCH), common control channel (CCCH) and dedicated control channels (DCCH). Broadcast Channels (BCH) BCCH (Broadcast Control Channel) is responsible for general broadcast functions. MS requires information from network to be able to function efficiently. MS might be able to receive many cells from different GSM networks. For example, network identification is regularly sent on the BCCH channel. BCCH channel uses always time slot 0 and DL direction only. FCCH (Frequency Correction Channel) sends predetermined bursts to DL direction only which mobile knows to look for. In fact, it is because of FCCH that mobile can synchronize its internal timeslot boundaries with those of the BTS. Mobile can also correct the frequency of its internal time base to help in demodulation of other channel bursts. After finding the FCCH, mobile also knows the location of the synchronization channel (SCH) since relative position of these two channels is always 8 burst periods. Unlike FCCH, SCH contains variable information which mobile is able to demodulate, thanks to FCCH. Contents of SCH burst tells for example, the current frames index in hyper-frame structure. Like other broadcast channels, SCH is to DL direction only. Common Control Channels (CCCH) Paging Channel (PCH) is used to alert the mobile for incoming calls. Location Area of the mobile is known by the network at all the times. Typically, location area contains several cells. Paging Message is sent on PCH in all the cells belonging to the location area mobile is known to reside at the time of incoming call. PCH is to DL direction only. Random Access Channel (RACH) is used to UL direction only by the mobiles to request a dedicated connection with the BTS, for example when initiating a call. The name is from the fact that mobiles choose their emission on the channel randomly. When connection has been requested by the mobile, the positive result is reported to DL through Access Grant Channel (AGCH) The cell broadcast channel (CBCH) is used to send short messages from network to mobiles on certain area. This might be for example traffic information. It is left to the network operators to define the usage of this service. Dedicated Control Channels (DCCH) The stand-alone dedicated control channel (SDCCH) is used for signalling in call setup. The channel is bidirectional. It is also used to transfer SMSs when mobile is on idle mode. The slow associated control channel (SACCH) is, as the name reveals, always associated with a TCH. It is used for signalling purposes during a call, e.g. to send mobile measurement reports. SACCH makes a complete cycle (i.e. transmits logically one whole message) once every four 26 multi-frames. This corresponds to length 0.48 seconds in time. Term SACCH Frame refers to one complete SACCH message sent during the mentioned 0.48 seconds. Cycle of SACCH is too slow to handle certain situations, like HOs. Therefore there is a channel used more rarely (as opposed to SACCH which is used regularly) when quick signalling is needed. This channel is called FACCH (Fast Associated Control Channel). The channel is only used when needed, by using stealing flags in normal burst structure. This will result in deterioration of speech quality, since either or both of the 57 bit information blocks are used for signalling instead of user data. From Speech to Radio Waves Analog speech is converted to digital coding, protected against transmission errors and eavesdropping and finally converted back to an analog radio signal. The steps in the process are described in the following Speech Digitalization Speech received by the microphone in MS is sampled at the rate of 8 kHz, corresponding to the resulting bit rate of 64 kbit/s.

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This data flow is optimized taking advantage of great redundancy in speech using a method called RPE-LTE (Regular Pulse Excitation- long term prediction), resulting in bit flow of 13 kbit/s. without errors in transmission, the speech quality should be very close to the one achieved in PSTN at the rate of 64 kbit/s Channel Coding Due to properties of the radio path the user data flow has to be protected against transmission errors. This is channel coding. User data flow of 13 kbit/s is divided in to blocks of 260 bits, corresponding to time period of 20 ms. Redundancy is added to each block. In the case of speech, the 260 bit block is increased in size to 456 bits, corresponding to gross data flow of 22.8 kbit/s. This will allow the detection and sometimes correction of the transmission errors in the receiver. Each bit is allocated to a certain category according to its importance for decoded speech quality. Number bits assigned to each category is presented in the table below. The 50 category 1a bits are protected by 3 bit parity code for error detection. These 53 bits are added together with 132 category 1b bits. The result is 185 bit sequence, to which a convolutional code is applied. It consists of adding 4 tail bits, all being zero, to the end of the sequence and then applying two convolutions whose polynomials are D4+D3+1 and D4+D3+D+1. This results in doubling of 189 input bits. Finally, the 378 protected bits are added with category II bits which are not protected, leading to 456 bits.

Division of source bits to categories according to importance Category 1a 50 bits Category 1b 132 bits Category II 78 bits Total 260 bits

Interleaving The convolutional error correction applied to user data in a receiver is often not able to correct errors that occur in bursts, i.e. when several consecutive bits are lost. Transmission errors in a radio interface tend to appear in bursts. Therefore a sender interleaves coded bits before transmitting. To put it short, interleaving means that logically consecutive bits are not transmitted next to each other. In the case of GSM speech interleaving depth is 8, meaning that logically consecutive bits are transmitted in 8 bit intervals. Ciphering 114 information bits in each burst is encrypted by performing exclusive-or operation to information bits and 114 bits long variable key. The key is pseudorandom sequence established by burst number and session key. Modulation The modulation scheme used in GSM is GMSK (Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying). Roughly 900 MHz carrier is modulated by a lower frequency

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information signal. Value of each bit is coded in the phase of analog radio signal. The modulation scheme was chosen as a compromise between the spectral efficiency and the complexity of the demodulation. From the modulation it follows that channel separation of 200 kHz between physical channels is not enough to make adjacent channels noninterfering. Gross bit rate during burst with chosen modulation is 270.83 kbit/s. when taking into account guard periods between bursts and the fact that each physical channel uses only every 8th burst, we end up to gross bit rate of 22.8 kbit/s per channel as mentioned earlier. On radio wave attenuation The difference between power emitted by the radio transmitter and the power received by the receiver is called pathloss. It is usually expressed in decibels (dB). Decibels always refer to difference in some power levels; when one signal power level is referred to, the unit is decibel meter (dBm). This means [dBm]-[dBm] = [dB]. Conversion from milliwatts to dBms is shown later. From the definition it follows that: [mW]/[mW] = [dBm]-[dBm] Pathloss in Free Space In a communication system where receiver and transmitter are separated by a distance d [m] and there are no obstructions to signal in between, the Power Pr at the receiver is given by wave is reflected from the object and part is penetrated. The relation between the energy of the reflected and the penetrated wave depends on the electric conductivity of material of the object. Perfect conductor totally reflects the incoming wave. Diffraction occurs when a wave is obstructed by an object having sharp irregularities or edges. The waves bend and can reach behind of an object, out of line of sight. On frequencies used by GSM, diffraction depends on state of the wave (amplitude, phase, polarization) and the geometry of the object at the point of interaction. Multiple objects that are small compared to the wave length cause scattering in the propagating wave. Rough surfaces, leaves of trees, street signs etc. cause scattering in GSM frequencies. Interaction of radio waves with objects cause the pathloss to be proportional to higher power than -2 as in free space situation in equation 1. In urban environment values from 3.5 to 4 are commonly considered valid. Propagation models on earth surface are introduced later. Signal Fading Deviations of signal strength from its mean is called fading. When modelling GSM system two types of fading are usually considered separately: large scale fading and small scale fading. Terms with respect to fading are varying. Some authors speak about slow (or shadow) fading, which is due to confusion and should be included in large scale fading. Other types of fading are called fast fading or small scale fading. Large scale fading is caused by the movements of the mobile and its surroundings. Due to movements, the amount of obstructions between the mobile and the BTS changes. This causes the signal strength in receiver to vary and is called large scale (or slow) fading. It is often modelled to be log normally distributed. Large scale fading can be considered to be constant during one 26 multiframe or even longer, if mobile moves walking speed.

Pr (d) = PtGtGr2/(4)2d2L
Where Pt is the transmitted power, Gt is the transmitted antenna gain, Gr the receiver antenna gain, is the wavelength in meters and L > 1 is the system loss factor not related to propagation. Both Gs and L are dimensionless quantities and Pr and Pt are in same units. Interaction of radio waves with physical objects When radio wave meets an object which is much larger in size than the wave length of the propagating wave, reflection occurs. This means that part of the energy of the incoming

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There are several reasons to small scale (fast) fading. The main reason is multipath propagation of the signal from the BTS to the MS. Due to varying lengths of distant propagation paths, components of the original signal arrive to the receiver in different time instants. Scattering and reflections also cause arriving signal components to vary in phase and amplitude. Different propagation paths also cause different Doppler shifts on each multipath component. Multipath components are added according to superposition principle in receiver. The result is that a MS experiences potentially deep (quite often up to 40 dB) fades in signal strength when it moves in space and time. Assuming stationary surroundings, the fades reduce to spatial phenomenon. Fast moving mobiles suffer less from small scale fading, since the duration of each fade is very short and transmission errors during that interval are probably corrected by the coding scheme. Slow moving mobiles may spend time in deep fade for such a long time that coding is unable to correct the errors. Typical small scale fading is presented in the figure below.

When measuring a neighboring cell, mobiles decodes BSIC (Base Station Identity Code) from BCCH frequency (this does not always succeed, which is discussed later). Actually BCCH frequency (mobile reports index of BA list, which BSC can convert to BCCH frequency) and BSIC code are only identifications available of the identity of the cell measured by mobile. The problem is that despite its name, BSIC is not unique. In fact, there are only six bits reserved for that, giving 64 distinct BSIC codes. This leads to the fact that even BCCHBSIC combination is not generally unique identification for a cell in a network. Recall that transmission of each TRX is divided into 8 timeslots. Each of these slots is, independent from others, either transmitting and receiving (i.e. serving a call) or not. A BCCH TRX transmits Broadcast information always on time slot zero. Additionally it can serve seven calls. However, the BCCH TRX is continuously transmitting whether carrying traffic or not. If there is no traffic, a dummy signal is transmitted on each time slot except zero, which transmits broadcast information. Moreover, despite the fact that there is a power control feature that decreases the transmitting power of both TRXs and mobiles if the quality of the connection allows it, the transmission on BCCH TRX is always on full power. This is to allow the mobiles to perform measurements on neighboring cells while receiving and transmitting user information on a busy schedule. GSM Network Frequency Planning Cell Density especially in urban areas has been increasing with number of subscribers and services offered in GSM networks. The planning process is decomposed to 3 independent stages, collecting the data, constructing the interference matrix and actual frequency assignment.

Mobile Measurement Reporting When in dedicated mode (i.e. during a call) a mobile measures BCCH frequencies defined in a BA list (BCCH Allocation). Power received on each frequency is saved and averaged over several samples taken during one SACCH Frame. How many samples are taken depends on the length of the BA list and is shown in table 3.

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Current ways to complete each stage are studied. The emphasis later in the thesis is on the first 2 stages of the frequency planning. Objective of Frequency Planning With given site locations and frequency band available, the quality of frequency plan greatly affects the quality and/or capacity of the network. Gain from improved frequency plan can be directed either to increase capacity or to improve quality of service. Both are needed to achieve customer satisfaction. Increase in capacity means tightening frequency reuse in network and thereby adding new TRXs to existing cells. This affects customer satisfaction by reducing call blocking probability. Quality improvement means decreasing interference in radio environment and thereby decreasing for example number of dropped calls. With GSM, as often in other fields of telecommunications, the issue is to balance the trade-off between minimizing the costs while maximizing the quality of service and capacity. The objective of frequency planning is to maximize operator revenue. This might mean maximizing capacity with chosen lower limit to quality and given cost (existing sites and hardware and costs from the planning itself). It also might mean maximizing quality with a given capacity. How benefits from improved frequency planning are directed is up to the network operator. Network Quality Indicators Dropped Call Ratio is the proportion of successfully initiated calls that are terminated without user request. It is one of the most commonly presented single figures representing an estimation of the quality of service in an operational network. This is due to its strong effect on customers; people expect phones to work and calls dropping without understandable reasons, like a railway tunnel, tend to irritate users. RXLEV is the received power level on a scale of 0 to 63. Mobile measures this value from serving cell frequency and from all frequencies specified in BA list. Serving cell RXLEV and up to six highest neighboring cell power levels are sent over air interface to the BTS. RXLEV is worse measure for speech quality than RXQUAL, since received power may be high but still strongly interfered. Together with RXQUAL, RXLEV can be used to determine whether quality is bad due to coverage or interference problems. Mapping from RXLEV to dBms can be found below. In latest specifications (Version 8+) there is also additional parameter SCALE, which allows mobiles to report higher than -47 dBm power levels. Dropped calls are caused mainly due to lack of signal strength (coverage), too strong interference or a hardware fault. Frequency planning can only reduce number of calls dropped due to interference. RXQUAL statistic is an indicator of bit error rate (BER). BER is approximated by mobile in a manufacturer specific way, once for every SACCH Frame (with some exceptions). Nokia mobiles for example use the following method: 4 consecutive decoded bursts are coded. These bits are then compared to the original coded bits received from radio interface. Differing bits divided by total number of bits gives an approximation of BER. Result is not accurate since some errors may have remained uncorrected by the decoding mechanism. To keep the signalling traffic minimal in air interface, BER ranging from 0% to 100% is mapped to RXQUAL ranging from 0 to 7. Mapping is presented in the table below. Assumed average BER is directive value to be used when average BER has to be estimated based on knowledge of RXQUAL value.

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Accuracy in measurements is determined to be at least +/-4dB when power is in the range from -110 dBm to -70dBm and +/-6dB otherwise. These methods are currently the only practical choices to plan a network in roll-out phase. once network is operational, frequency plan can be optimized by collecting statistics from the network. For example, HO statistics can be used for this purpose. Propagation Predictions Radio wave propagation has been widely studied in literature. There are 3 different propagation model classes according to COST 231. One is to theoretically derive a formula based on knowledge of behavior of electromagnetic waves i.e. a deterministic model. The other approach is to do field measurements and that way establish an empirical model. Third model class is the combination of the two, a semi-deterministic model. Longley-Rice Model Longley-Rice Model is valid for frequency range from 40 MHz to 100 GHz. It is developed purely on theoretical basis to be applied to point-to-point pathloss in irregular non-urban terrain. Model has been improved several times since its original publications, for example to better suit urban terrain as well. Urban terrain has been taken into account by adding extra term called urban factor to further increase the pathloss in urban environment derived from Okumuras studies. One shortcoming of the model is for example missing of multipath propagation. Okumura Model Okumura Model is widely used despite of its relatively old age, although some modifications have been adopted later, for example in Hat90. Original model is based purely on extensive measurements in urban environment in Japan. Okumura derived set of curves that describe median attenuation relative to free space pathloss. Model can be expressed as: L50 = LF + Amu (f,d) G(hte) GAREA(f) Where L50 is the median value of propagation path loss in dB, LF is the free space path loss, Amu is the median attenuation relative to free space attenuation,

Stages in FP After hardware has been physically installed on sites, planning the frequencies of large GSM network may take more than one man year with currently used methods. Depending on preferences, the whole process can be differently divided into more or less independent stages. First stage is choosing the source for and collecting the raw data needed as a basis of planning. Second step is to construct an interference matrix (IM a.k.a inter-cell dependency matrix) from the raw data. Final phase is to actually allocated frequencies to each cell based on interference matrix and constraints. Depending on selections at each stage, the resulting frequency plan will induce certain performance in operational network with new frequency plan. The constraints affecting the frequency assignment stage are set by hardware requirements and potentially other reasons like agreements between operators near international borders. Frequency assignment stage is often called, somewhat misleadingly, automated frequency planning due to strong contribution of computer algorithms to frequency assignment. Collecting the Raw Data How much does the transmission of one cell affect the performance of a mobile connected to other? Currently this question is resolved most by predicting radio wave propagation. Since this method is inaccurate, some ad-hoc measurements from hopefully representative points of network are used to supplement propagation predictions.

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G(hte) is the gain factor from mobile antenna height and GAREA is the gain from type of the environment. Set of curves giving Amu (f,d) for frequency and distance required are listed in Oku68 as well as gain factors G(hte), G(hre) andGAREA(f) Okumuras model is performing best on urban and suburban areas. Standard deviation of the difference between path loss given by Okumura model and measurements are around 10 dB to 14 dB. Assuming normality this would correspond to 95% confidence interval of roughly +/-20 dB or +/-28 dB. COST231-Walfisch-Ikegami This model makes distinction between LOS and NLOS situations. The model is simple but considered one of the most accurate ones in urban environment. It is expressed as: L = 42.6 +26log(d) +20log(f) for LOS & L = 32.4+20log(d)+20log(f)+Lrts+Lmsd, NLOS Where L is pathloss in dB, d is distance in km, f frequency in MHz, Lrts roof top to street diffraction and scatter pathloss and Lmsd multi-screen diffraction loss. Lrts and Lmsd are determined by assumed geometry where uniform height buildings are between regular interval placed streets. Manually Measured Data Due to inaccuracies in all radio wave propagation prediction methods, ad-hoc measurements are usually used to improve data from predictions. These measurements are usually performed by surveying specific part of network with measurement equipment. The problem with measurement methods is extensive data gathering which is very expensive. Furthermore the effects of cell traffic patterns are not captured by the method. Network Statistics Some statistics stored in OSS can be used to determine values in IM. The most useful measure is handover statistics. If two cells overlap, i.e. interfere with each other, then there will be HOs between the cells. The more there is traffic on an overlapping area, the more there are handovers on average. This allows to determine numerically the overlap between pair of cells. Table 5. Comparison between CCF, NPS/X and HO ranking of most interfering cells. A small trial to examine the correlation between the number of HO attempts and CCF IM values were performed. One cell was measured to allow construction of one row in CCF IM. Based on this IM row the worst interfering cells for the measuring cell were ranked. Corresponding ranking was also made according to number of handover attempts during certain time period. For comparison, the ranking made with NPS/X tool is listed as well. Results are presented in table 5. Same data is depicted in figure 11. Note that in the figure a straight y=x would represent identical ranking with CCF. Only 30 first cells according to CCF ranking are displayed, complete data is presented in Appendix B.

Interferer ranking according to HOs and NPS/X predictions against CCF ranking.

In the table above, #NA means that the cell in question was not defined as a handover candidate, and therefore no handovers could be made between the two cells involved.

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There were altogether 29 cells defined as handover candidates, and every one of those had at least one handover attempt listed. Basically frequent occurrence of #NA in HO column means that HO lists are poorly defined for the cell measured. But still it can be seen that the correlation between CCF ranking and HO ranking is better than between CCF and NPS/X When judging the correlation between HO and CCF ranking it is worth to point out that cells that are on grey background on table 5 are micro cells. Due to special HO policy in the network where the data is taken from, calls are handed over from macrocells (like the measuring cell) to microcell more easily. This is shown in data in table 5 because the most popular HO partner is not so high on CCF ranking (23rd place). Different kinds of HO policies are one reason that decrease the value of HO statistic as a source data for IM. However, they have been found to improve traditional propagation prediction based frequency plans (as reported by Slovenian operator Mobitel) Constructing an Interference Matrix Then BTS B is changed to operate on frequency 1 as well. Element (A,B) in IM should now somehow describe how much mobiles attached to cell A now are disturbed or interfered by radio transmissions from cell B. IM is a model of real network, and there are countless ways to construct it even if the underlying raw data is identical. IMs can be divided according to the meaning of individual elements of the matrix. The elements might be for example average received power levels, CIR values, percentage of interfered traffic and so on. IM can model either downlink or uplink situation. Generally GSM network tend to be downlink interference limited, and therefore downlink matrices can be considered to be more important. This is mainly because of use of antenna diversity in the Base Station (BTS has two receiving antennas, each time instant signal from the stronger is selected). But locally uplink interference may be of importance too. Element (i,j) in the DL IM describes how mobiles attached to cell i are interfered by transmission of BTS j if the two cells are using the same frequency. Same element in uplink IM quantifies how BTS i receiving transmissions from mobiles attached to itself is interfered by mobiles transmitting to BTS j. As a concluding remark, generally the term interference matrix can refer to basically almost any kind of matrix describing either UL or DL interaction between cells in a network. However, in this work, the term interference matrix or IM refers to that particular kind of DL interference matrix that is achieved when using the method described later. Interference Matrix used by NPS/X In NPS/X each pixel (smallest possible geographical area on an electronic map) that is under coverage belongs to the service area of exactly one cell. Power received in certain pixel from each BTS can be calculated. Element (i,j) in interference matrix describes the percentage of pixels in the service area of cell i that would experience worse than threshold C/I value if cell j operates on same frequency with i. The threshold is given by user. If traffic distribution inside cell area is estimated by user, it is taken into account in IM calculation.

What is an interference matrix?

An interference matrix or inter-cell dependency matrix (IM) is a matrix that describes the interaction between cells in a GSM network. Element (i,j) in the IM somehow describes how BTS i interacts with BTS j. interaction here means radio interference if both cells use the same frequency. In other words, this element describes how well mobiles in cell i's area receive radio transmission from BTS j. Very often physically neighboring cells interact with each other very much, and are thus transmitting on different frequencies in a real network. An example: imagine a network with only 2 BTSs, BTS A is operating on GSM Frequency 1 and BTS B on GSM Frequency 6. These two frequencies are far enough from each other in the frequency band and can be considered to be totally non-interfering. Obviously mobiles attached to A experience no disturbance what so ever from cell B and vice versa.

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Then the element (i,j) actually estimates percentage of traffic experiencing worse than threshold CIR. Channel Separation Matrix Channel Separation Matrix (CSM) contains constraints on frequency assignment set by hardware limitations. Element i,j in CSM is an integer from 0 to 5 and tells the required separation of frequencies between TRX i and j. Sometimes CSM is embedded the information from IM; values from IM can be transferred to frequency separation requirements. Frequency assignment can then be made without actual IM. When wider scale of IM is mapped to integers from 0 to 5, some accuracy of interference information is lost. Allocating Frequencies Similarly forbidding using same channel within one site reduces number of possible plans to N3 When we rule out plans where same frequency is used twice within any cell, number of possible assignments N2 is

Frequency assignment as an optimization problem

The problem of finding an optimal frequency assignment when interference matrix (cost matrix) and constraints are known is academically the most challenging task of the whole frequency planning process. Commonly the frequency assignment problem is formulated to minimize number of frequencies needed for network with certain traffic while satisfying constraints given in channel separation matrix. In this case interference information is included in CSM. The approach is somewhat impractical from the network operator point of view, who has fixed frequency band available and is only interested in maximizing capacity or quality in the network. Size of the FA problem Let us briefly consider what is the size of the FA problem. For this we use the following notation. S= number of sites T= number of TRXs C= number of cells F= number of frequencies available Consider a fairly small example network where S= 30, C= 90 (3 cells/site), T=180 (Two TRX per cell) and F=20. Then the number of possible assignments N1 when constraints are not considered is: N1 = FT = 1.5*10234

It is obvious that with current computing power, checking all admissible plans is impossible with small networks of 90 cells. Mobile Measurement based FP

Advantages of Mobile Measurement based FP Traffic Distribution between cells

In a roll-out phase, the amount of traffic to be carried by each cell is not known. Later when the network is operational, statistics describing for example average load on each cell can be collected. This information can then be used to amend the original frequency plan. Improvement is expected, since clearly cells carrying more traffic have greater need for non-interfered frequencies. Assume in network in figure 12, there are 2 frequencies to allocate; clearly cell B should have a frequency of its own while A and C can share the same frequency.

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Power level patterns for each BTS on cell area under inspection are very complex in urban environment and impossible to predict accurately. The fact is that power levels are most interesting from interference point of view in those locations where calls are made often. As a clear example, it does not matter if interference on most of rooftops would lead to poor quality calls, since no calls are made there very often. These kind of things are automatically taken into account in mobile measurement data. Getting data with same properties with other methods is impossible.

Since mobiles send MMRs during a call in regular intervals, the total number of MMRs received by any cell indicates the amount of traffic carried by the cell. This information is therefore readily available when constructing interference matrix and the issue needs not to be considered in FA phase of frequency planning. Obviously cell B, carrying average traffic of say, 6 Erlangs benefits more from non interfered BCCH transmission than cell A, carrying only 3 erlangs, assuming both cells have only one TRX. If cell B has 2 TRX and cell A only one, then amount of traffic carried does not affect the relative importance of cells A and B. This is because traffic per TRX is equal in both the cells.

Cell Service Areas

Cell service area can be defined in numerous ways. Each has its pros and cons. Geographical point S belongs to service area of cell A if and only if the most probable cell acting as server is A, should a mobile with call ongoing move to S, initiate or receive a call at S. Cell service areas depend on several network parameters. A concrete example of such parameter is handover power budget margin. With this parameter, it can be set that a call on macro layer is handed over to the micro even if power level on macro is, say 20 dB higher. Obviously changing this parameter has an effect on cell service areas. When planning frequencies with propagation predictions, interference between cells is often based on estimated cell service areas. Since predicting cell service areas with radio wave propagation calculations is very inaccurate, accurate interference matrix can not be achieved.

Traffic distribution inside individual cell

With any prediction based method it is impossible to know how mobiles move and behave within a service area of a cell. Single mobiles can be tracked, but this is not useful as a source of large scale statistical information. Traffic distribution within a cell is a factor that affects the CIR distribution and therefore the call quality in a cell. This factor has been neglected traditionally since it is hard to take into account with prediction methods. With mobile measurements this issue is however implicitly taken into account, since the data collected is dependent on mobile movements and call behavior. Traffic pattern at each instant is a set of those physical locations where a call is in progress. This naturally changes constantly with time in GSM network as mobiles are not stationary. However, it is assumed that when traffic pattern is averaged over sufficiently long time (say a week), it remains fairly similar.

Possibility to automate frequency planning procedure

The whole MMFP process can be automated and run with little work load on an iterative manner. This offers a possibility to capture the changing environment in network area. Radio environment is subject to changes as cells are being added and new buildings are constructed. Novel Services offered for mobile phones change the user behavior. New coding schemes used set new requirements for experienced C/I.

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All these changes happen on relatively slow time cycle, but their long term effect may be significant. With the frequency planning process automated, the effect of changes to the network can be captured. each cell that has its frequency changed also has its service area changed. This is because of different propagation characteristics of different radio frequencies. Measurements and therefore interference matrix and frequency assignment are based on service areas before new assignment. Then clearly such assignment is not optimal if cell service areas are changed. How much assignment deviates from the optimum depends on how much cell service areas change. To get some idea of the magnitude of cell area changes, the following analysis is made. Let us assume that the equation below describes radio wave attenuation sufficiently to our purposes. L = 40 (1-4x10-3 hb)Log10(R) 18Log10(hb)+21log10(f) +80dB -

Assumptions Network is DL interference limited

This assumption is generally accepted for GSM networks. DL direction is the bottleneck due to better quality reception in BTS as compared to the mobiles. Also, looking into the future, different kinds of data services are becoming more commonly used. For example, in Internet type of services, mobile would mostly send short requests to uplink direction and would then receive larger amount of data to downlink. This kind of traffic will furthermore emphasize the role of DL interference over UL in urban networks. It is worth noting that network is allowed to be also so called coverage limited. In this somewhat less interesting case this method is applicable but just not as badly needed, since prediction methods and a prior measurements provide fairly accurate IM.

Where L is the pathloss in dB, h is antenna height in meters (15 m used here) measured from average roof top level and f is the frequency in MHz. The equation above is applicable to urban and suburban areas where rooftop level is nearly constant. Given maximum change in frequency, what is the corresponding change in distance when pathloss is kept constant? It can be concluded by applying the equation above that maximum possible cell service area change is 4%. This occurs if cell operates on lowest possible DL frequency of extended GSM band, 925 MHz and is allocated new frequency of 960 MHz, maximum frequency from the same band. It is worth noting that this is maximum possible change in cell service area if equation above holds, and therefore provides worst-case approximation. In practice no operator has whole GSM900 band in its use, and of the portion it has, dedicated BCCH band is only a subset. In more optimistic case operators BCCH band might be 5MHz (25 separate GSM frequencies), in which worst-case area change in cell area is 0.6%. Considering inaccuracies in cell service area estimation by radio wave propagation predictions, these up to 4% changes are negligible.

All DL frequencies of E-GSM propagate similarly enough

Method described in this document for creating interference matrix can only be used to an already operational network. Therefore, this network has some frequency assignment during the time when measurements are collected. During measurement period each cell has certain serving area. Service area here means set of those physical locations, where call in progress would be attached to the cell under inspection. This definition is rather vague, since a cell to which mobile is attached to is a function of besides instantaneous received power levels also of history of power levels and previous serving cell. This is due to power margins in handover algorithms. Therefore let us define service area of cell A as set of those locations, where expected value of serving cell is A, if there was a mobile with ongoing call on that particular location. During measurements each cell has certain service area. When measurements are collected, processed and analyzed and new frequency assignment is made,

Inaccuracies in mobiles power measurements have no significant impact on IM

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Errors in mobiles power measurements is demanded to be smaller than +/-6dB when over -70dBm and +/-4dB otherwise. Received power level is measured on a scale of 64, so error is allowed to be quite significant. Besides random errors there may be, depending on handset manufacturer, also systematic error sources. Moreover, during one SACCH multiframe (0.48s) mobile can only take few samples on each frequency. There are 96 intervals, during which mobile has time to measure one frequency . If length of the BA list is, say 20, that leaves four samples per each frequency (roughly equal amount of samples is collected from each frequency) This would make frequency 2 appear stronger relatively to 1 than is really the case. This effect is shown in figure 13 above. As a result it can be seen that many factors affect the results of mobiles power measurement. However, none of the underlying phenomena is such that it would appear in one cell but not in other. Fast fading is present everywhere and random errors cancel out due to large number of measurements. Since each cell is likely to contain handsets from several manufacturers, effect of systematic errors is also diminished. Single measured values are not to be trusted. It is still extremely unlikely that after over hundred thousand measurements per BTS any cell would gain or lose anything relative to others when values in interference matrix are considered.

Construction of an Interference Matrix IM based on Mobile Measurement Reports Aim of an IM

Interference matrix is the most important input to frequency assignment problem. The ultimate aim of an FA is to find a frequency plan that will maximize operators revenue. It is natural to think that this would be equivalent to maximizing the quality of service experienced by customers, since capacity is fixed. Therefore, the purpose of IM is to describe the inter cell relations in the network in such a manner that FA algorithm reaches as good frequency plan as possible.

During SACCH multiframe any signal mobile receives is considered to be subject nearly to fast fading (whereas other attenuation factors are considered nearly constant), so signal strength may be assumed to approximately follow Rayleigh distribution. Depending on mobiles speed, it may experience several fading dips during 0.48s period. On average, fading dips occur every half wavelength, corresponding roughly to 17cm with E-GSM frequencies. If speed of the mobile is constant 5km/h, easy calculation shows that it experiences on average 4 fading dips during SACCH. Due to regular frame structure which allows gaps for mobile to perform measurements, it is possible that measurement instants are divided uniformly over time. Therefore potentially when frequency 1 is measured, signal happens to be in fade each time, whereas frequency 2 happens to be measured outside fading dips.

The measure for quality of IM

FA is a discrete combinational optimization problem. It minimizes a cost function while satisfying some constraints. The cost function is the result from the IM and the frequency plan, while the constraints are due to for example radio equipment limitations. The exact cost function used varies, but the general form is as given by 5. An FA alogirthm makes decision between good and bad frequency plan purely based on cost function. It is therefore important that a frequency plan FP1 producing lower cost function value than plan FP2 actually leads to better quality of service in the network.

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This property is depending on the quality of the underlying IM as well as the cost function chosen. Standard deviation could be included in several ways and so on. CCF method chosen for implementation by Nokia is described later on. Similarly there are several ways to construct an actual IM based on CIR data. CIR information is available based on the following. Each measurement report contains in addition to up to six neighboring cell power levels also the power level of the carrier. This allows to calculate approximate average C/I during the SACCH frame that the measurement report was sent that would actually be experienced by mobile if the current carrier and the reported neighbor would operate on same frequency. To clarify this, let us assume the following measurement report is received.

Weighing IM elements with Traffic

As described earlier, accounting for traffic distribution at some stage of a frequency plan is very important. There are 2 ways to take into account the traffic distribution between cells. An IM can be constructed in such a way that traffic amounts have no effect on IM elements. This is feasible if the FA tool used by the network operator can easily include traffic (weighing factors wi in 5) in cost function. On the other hand it is possible that for some operators gathering traffic data is time consuming or the FA tool used is unable to include traffic into cost function. In this case, it is necessary to deliver such an IM to the FA tool that already implicitly contains traffic weighing. When an interference matrix contains traffic within its elements, it is called traffic weighed IM. Note that the term traffic weighing here refers to including inter-cell traffic distribution into IM. Intracell traffic distribution is always implicitly present in an IM constructed from mobile measurement reports.

In example of table 7 only 3 neighboring cells (or interferers) were reported. None of the neighboring cells is actually an interferer at the time of measurements since the cells operate on different frequencies. If in new frequency assignment the measuring cell C is to operate on same frequency with one of the cells, I1, I2 or I3, that will be the real interferer. If we assume that cells C and I1 would transmit the same frequency, then CIR would be -3dB based on the data in table 7. Correspondingly for I2 CIR would be 13dB and for I3 21dB. To conclude, in CIR based method instead of received power levels, the potential CIR values are stored. How this CIR distribution is then used to calculate actual elements in IM can vary.

Two different ways to obtain IM elements from raw MMR data

From information available in the mobile measurement reports several types of interference matrices can be constructed. Two general types of IMs can be distinguished based on the usage of raw data available from MMRs. One type is based on power level (or interference, I) received by mobiles in cell A from each other cell. The other is based on CIR values. From historical reasons, the type of IMs taking into account only interference are called CCF IMs (Cell Coverage Factor) There are several ways to construct a CCF IM. Common for all of these is that IM element (i,j) is somehow derived from the RXLEV distribution received from cell j by mobiles connected to cell i. The difference between possible CCF methods is the exact way how this RXLEV distribution is used to obtain the final elements. For example mean value or cumulative sum of the distribution could be used.

Interference matrix based on Average power

In S10 release no CIR information is available from BSC, and therefore IM is constructed based on average power level.

Data available and data needed for IM in S10

This method is implemented in Nokia S10 system release. Data flow is illustrated in figure 16. It represents data (relevant to IM building) coming from each mobile to BSC.

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Parameter nA in figure 16 is explained later. How BSC structures the data and sends it forward to OSS is fixed for S10 release. In figure 16 this means that the format of the table between BSC and OSS is non-changeable. Any changes required can next be implemented at earliest to S11. On the other hand, the way the OSS builds the IM is still open due to different phases of BSC and OSS product lines. The specification is made here.

As can be seen from figure 16, in S10 release BSC discards information about serving cell received power level. Therefore complete CIR distribution cant be used for IM calculation in S10 release. Three counters giving crude approximation of the CIR distribution are available, but using average power to describe interference seems safer approach. It remains to decide how exactly should the average power be used to construct the IM elements. Especially throughout the whole document, term averaging and summing refers to corresponding operations being made in linear units as opposed to logarithmic i.e. all summing and averaging is done in watts/milliwatts, not in dBms or RXLEVs.