Welcome to today’s webinar

An Introduction to the Aster Propagation Model

Vincent Spiegel Eduard Railean

Sales Director Product Manager

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 Webinar Agenda

Introduction

Aster
Main features
Use cases
Accuracy and speed of the model

Questions and answers

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 Introduction
Forsk and Atoll

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 Company Profile

Leader in the radio planning & optimisation software market

Developer of Atoll
7000 licences in use worldwide
450 customers in 120 countries

Worldwide customer base comprising wireless operators,

vendors, and engineering companies

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 Atoll 3.3

Multi-technology radio planning & optimisation software

GSM/GPRS/EDGE, UMTS/HSPA, LTE/LTE-Advanced, CDMA/EV-DO, TD-SCDMA, WiMAX & Wi-Fi
Microwave link engineering & backhaul capacity planning

Technical leadership
Native 64-bit application
Single RAN multi-RAT architecture
Combination of Live data and prediction for planning and optimisation
In-built automation and customisation capabilities

Global support
Forsk support centres in France, USA, and China
Network of local distributors complementing our support centres

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 Aster

A new propagation model for Atoll

Macro and micro/small cells planning in urban areas
Ray-tracing techniques
Automatic calibration based on measurements

Released in March 2015

High accuracy / superior calculation speed

Addressing the needs for large calculation campaign for small cell planning in Urban areas

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 Aster Propagation Model

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 Coverage Modelling Challenges in Mobile Networks

Mobile network development trends

Multiple frequency bands
Ever increasing densification
Complex layering (macro/mini/small cells)
Heterogeneous networks (GSM/UMTS/LTE/WiFi)

High data volume

Large number of sites
High precision geo data

Requirements for the propagation model

Accuracy
Speed
Versatility

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 Aster Propagation Model General Description

64-bit high-performance ray-tracing propagation

model

Models radio wave propagation for all mobile

technologies

Supports frequencies from 150 MHz to 5 GHz

Adapts to all types of environments: from dense

urban to rural

Models macro, mini and small cells

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 Aster Propagation Model Features

Ray-tracing
Vertical diffraction over the roof-tops
Horizontal diffraction/reflection based on
ray-launching
Uses raster or vector building data

Optimised for fast calculations

high-speed unique ray-tracing technique

Highly accurate
Aster is delivered with pre-calibrated
parameters

Automatic calibration features

Ready & easy-to-use

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 Indoor propagation

Models the following indoor propagation:

Outdoor to indoor
Indoor
Indoor to outdoor

Main indoor parameters:

Penetration loss
Linear loss
Receiver height (default or floor level)

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 Map data

DTM

Clutter

Raster buildings

Vectors (buildings, bridges, vegetation

and water)

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 Flexible Input Data

Highly flexible in terms of input data

Calculations based on propagation clutter types
Ray-tracing calculations on vector buildings
Ray-tracing calculations on raster buildings
Ray-tracing on combinations of raster and vector
buildings
Vector data need no pre-processing

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 Multi-type and Multi-resolution Environments

Propagation classes
Statistical
Deterministic

The high resolution layer is mapped to Aster’s

deterministic propagation classes and the low
resolution layer is mapped to Aster’s statistical
propagation classes

Transition between different resolutions

Transition between raster and vector

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 Model calibration

The model is provided with default

parameters
Suitable for macro and small cell scenarios

Integrated automatic calibration function

minimises
Mean error
Standard Deviation
Spread of mean errors

Statistical analysis
Evaluating existing models
Controlling the calibration process
Comparing different parameter settings

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 Use Cases

Deploying small cells

Densifying the macro layer

APP
OS

Modelling HETNets

APP
OS

APP
OS

APP
OS

APP
OS

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 Small Cell Environment

Small cell environment characteristics

Low antenna height
Low power and reduced range
High geo data resolution
Dominated by horizontal propagation

Aster for small cells

Dedicated micro cell propagation component
High resolution with or without vectors
High speed ray tracing algorithm
Up to 10 diffractions and reflections
Indoor propagation modelling
• Wall penetration
• Indoor linear loss

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 Macro Environment

Macro environment characteristics

Above rooftops antenna height
Greater range
High geo data resolution
Dominated by vertical propagation

Aster for macro cells

Dedicated macro propagation
component
High and low resolution data with or
without vectors
High speed algorithm
Deterministic and statistical components

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 Performance: Speed

Aster propagation model supports:

Single threaded
Multi-threaded
Parallel computations

High computation speed is achieved

Using special raster treatment
Optimised data access

Computation time for a typical

Small cell: 5s
Macro cell: 8s

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 Aster – Calculation time

Ray tracing parameters

Number of ref/diffractions – 4
Ray-tracing range – 800 m

Macro tri sector 35m high site

Primary matrix range/resolution - 1km/5m
Secondary matrix range/resolution - 5km/20m
Prediction Time = 5.5 sec

Small Cell one sector 7m high site

Matrix range - 1km
5m resolution: Prediction Time = 1 sec
2m resolution: Prediction Time = 10 sec

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 Performance: Accuracy

Dense Urban area with default parameters

(macro cells)
Ray tracing with sectors: St Dev=5.32 dB

Micro cells in 900 Mhz

Standard Deviation = 6.77 dB

Microcells in combined 900 and 1800 Mhz

Standard Deviation = 6.63 dB

Dense Urban area a mix of macro and micro

cells
Standard deviation = 6.53 dB

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 Highlights

Aster Propagation Model achieves high accuracy and

high calculation speed out of the box

In-built flexibility allowing easy adaptation to various

environments and geodata types

Superior calculation speed allowing for high resolution

calculations and large number of sites

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 Thank you for attending today’s webinar

Q&A session

Feel free to send your questions to:

Vincent Spiegel Eduard Railean

vspiegel@forsk.com erailean@forsk.com

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