Radio Network Dimensioning for GSM/GPRS

Supporting Circuit- and Packet-Switched Services

Peter Stuckmann
www.comnets.rwth-aachen.de/~pst

Peter Stuckmann
Structure

the problem

coexisting circuit-switched traffic

dimensioning rules for fixed PDCH configurations

dimensioning rules for on-demand PDCH configurations

configurations with fixed and on-demand PDCHs

Peter Stuckmann 2nd Würzburg-Workshop on IP 2

Motivation
radio network dimensioning demands the relationship between
? offered traffic predicted by operator
? QoS desired by operator for his clients
? radio resources needed (number of PDCHs and TRX)

analytical complexity caused by

? radio channel attributes
? bursty traffic (no Erlang-B-formula like in CS)

system complexity – no test bench or field trials with complete protocol

software and hardware components available
solution: computer simulation of the system that models
? system components and their protocols
? traffic sources
? radio channel

Peter Stuckmann 2nd Würzburg-Workshop on IP 3

Capacity planning and radio network dimensioning
relationship between
? offered traffic
? QoS desired
? radio resources needed

Traffic QoS

Simulation model Analytical model

Capacity model

Erlang table Erlang Formula

Radio network dimensioning

Peter Stuckmann 2nd Würzburg-Workshop on IP 4

Measures and methodology

term circuit-switched packet-switched

traffic offered traffic in Erlang offered amount of data per
time in kbit/s
QoS parameter blocking probability (GoS) throughput, delay,...
resources traffic channels packet data channels
tool simple formula or table dimensioning graphs or
tables
methodology Erlang-B formula simulation results,
analytical / algorithmic
techniques

Peter Stuckmann 2nd Würzburg-Workshop on IP 5

Simulation Environment (E)GPRSim
Circuit Packet
Internet Load Generator (SDL) Session
Generator
Switched Arrival
Tele-
Generator Funet HTTP FTP SMTP WAP RT
matic Process
Mobitex TCP/UDP
IP
Railway

Generator CAC
(session
management)
Channel
Management

SNDCP SNDCP

LLC
Relay
LLC LLC
(SDL) (SDL)

RLC/MAC BSSGP G b Uplink

RLC/MAC BSSGP
(SDL) (SDL)
Frame Frame
Relay Relay
Channel/Error G b Downlink
Transceiver Model Transceiver SGSN
BS
MS
Um Gb

GIST Web Interface Statistical Evaluation

1 1
Throughput (S)

0.9 0.9

Blocking Rate
0.8 24 RA Slots
Funet 0.8 56 RA
88 RA Slots
Slots
0.7 0.7
0.6 0.6
0.5 0.5
0.4 0.4
0.3 Railway 0.3
0.2 Mobitex 0.2
0.1 0.1
00 0.20.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.61.8 2 00 1000
20003000
40005000
6000
7000
8000
9000
10000
Offered Load (G) Offered Load [byte/s]

Peter Stuckmann 2nd Würzburg-Workshop on IP 6

 Dimensioning rules for fixed-PDCH scenarios (I)

downlink IP throughput over offered traffic Dimensioning Graph

25 25
3 fixed PDCH 4 fixed PDCH
4 fixed PDCH 5 fixed PDCH
5 fixed PDCH 6 fixed PDCH
6 fixed PDCH

Downlink IP throughput [kbit/s]

Downlink IP throughput [kbit/s]

20 20

15 15

10 10

5 5

0 0
5 10 15 20 25 30 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Offered IP traffic [kbit/s] Offered IP traffic / PDCH [kbit/s]

Peter Stuckmann 2nd Würzburg-Workshop on IP 7

Dimensioning rules for fixed-PDCH scenarios (II)

define the desired QoS

estimate the number of users per cell
estimate the offered traffic per user
calculate the total offered traffic per cell
determine the acceptable traffic per PDCH with the desired QoS from
the dimensioning graph
calculate the needed number of PDCHs
PDCH = estimated offered traffic / acceptable traffic per PDCH

Peter Stuckmann 2nd Würzburg-Workshop on IP 8

Example
define the desired QoS
? example value: 12.5 kbit/s is desired

estimate the number of users per cell

? example value: 10 users with 540 kbyte/h per user

calculate the offered traffic per user and the offered traffic per cell
? offered traffic per user = 540 kbyte/h = 1.2 kbit/s
? total offered traffic per cell = 12 kbit/s

take the acceptable traffic per PDCH from the reference graph
? acceptable traffic per PDCH = 3.5 kbit/s/PDCH
? PDCH = 3.4
? 4 PDCHs have to be allocated for GPRS

Peter Stuckmann 2nd Würzburg-Workshop on IP 9

Radio resource management
on-demand assignment of PDCHs for GPRS
voice connections are prioritized

TCH release
TCH shift

X X X X X X X X

maximum number
maximum number of fixed PDCHs
of on-demand PDCHs
Transition
TCHs allocated for CS TCHs allocated
for GPRS

X X X X X X X

Peter Stuckmann 2nd Würzburg-Workshop on IP 10

Circuit switched traffic
radio network dimensioned for voice services with blocking probability
of e.g. 1 % (blocking probability = Grade of Service (GoS))
unutilized resources can be used for GPRS
State probability vs no. of TCHs for 1TRX State probability vs no. of PDCHs
0.3 0.8

0.7
0.25
0.6
0.2
Probability

Probability
0.5

0.15 0.4

0.3
0.1
0.2
0.05
0.1

0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Number of channels Number of channels

Peter Stuckmann 2nd Würzburg-Workshop on IP 11

 GPRS performance with coexisting CS traffic (I)

downlink IP throughput per user downlink IP packet delay

30 2
0 fixed PDCH 0 fixed PDCH
1 fixed PDCH 1 fixed PDCH
2 fixed PDCH 2 fixed PDCH

25
Downlink IP throughput [kbit/s]

1.5

Downlink IP delay [s]

20

15 1

10
0.5

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Offered IP traffic [kbit/s] Offered IP traffic [kbit/s]

Peter Stuckmann 2nd Würzburg-Workshop on IP 12

 GPRS performance with coexisting CS traffic (II)

downlink PDCHs assigned (average) downlink PDCH utilization

8 100
0 fixed PDCH 0 fixed PDCH
1 fixed PDCH 1 fixed PDCH
2 fixed PDCH 2 fixed PDCH
7
Downlink PDCHs assigned (average)

Downlink PDCH utilization [percent]

80
6

5
60

40
3

2
20

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Offered IP traffic [kbit/s] Offered IP traffic offer [kbit/s]

Peter Stuckmann 2nd Würzburg-Workshop on IP 13

Dimensioning rules for on-demand-PDCH scenarios

simulation results show that the shared use of GSM physical channels
both for CS and GPRS makes sense
dimensioning rules for on-demand-PDCH scenarios are needed
the aim is to take an existing TRX scenario as the basis and find the
acceptable CS traffic so that the desired GPRS performance can be
achieved
if the predicted offered traffic is exceeded a new TRX module should
be added to the base station
in the following an example is given for a 3 TRX scenario

Peter Stuckmann 2nd Würzburg-Workshop on IP 14

 Example: 3 TRX scenario (I)

downlink IP throughput per user

25
0.5% GoS
2% GoS
10% GoS
Example values
Downlink IP throughput [kbit/s]

20
? offered CS traffic with 1.5 % GoS
? 10 GPRS users per cell
15

? 540 kbyte/h offered per user

10 ? desired QoS of 12.5 kbit/s

0
5 10 15 20 25 30

Offered IP traffic [kbit/s]

Peter Stuckmann 2nd Würzburg-Workshop on IP 15

Example: 3 TRX scenario (II)

calculate the offered traffic per cell

? total offered traffic per cell = 10 * 540 byte/h = 12 kbit/s

regard the operating point p defined by the desired user performance

on the y-axis and the offered traffic per cell on the x-axis and choose
the adequate GoS curve as the next that lies above the operating point
? p = (x = 12 kbit/s, y = 12.5 kbit/s)

if the offered CS traffic corresponding to the GoS is predicted to be

exceeded, a new TRX should be added
? the operating point p lies just below the 2 % GoS curve
? coexisting CS traffic up to 2 % GoS is acceptable
? since 1.5 % GoS was assumed an additional TRX is not necessary in this cell

Peter Stuckmann 2nd Würzburg-Workshop on IP 16

Mixed configurations

to be able to guarantee the availability of GPRS, operators might

provide fixed PDCHs and the rest as on-demand PDCHs
in this case simple estimations can be done:
? scenarios with 1,2 or 3 fixed PDCHs: take pure on-demand configurations for
dimensioning (probability that the first PDCHs are used by CS is low)
? scenarios with more than 3 fixed PDCHs: take a pure fixed PDCH configuration for
dimensioning (probability that the on-demand PDCHs are used by CS is high)

Peter Stuckmann 2nd Würzburg-Workshop on IP 17

Conclusions

fixed PDCH configurations can be dimensioned with one simple

dimensioning graph
on-demand PDCH configurations are recommended, since not all
physical channels are highly utilized by CS
dimensioning of on-demand PDCHs can be done by taking
dimensioning graphs for the regarded TRX scenario as the basis
for mixed scenarios with both fixed and on-demand PDCHs simple
estimations can be done and pure fixed or pure on-demand
dimensioning rules can be applied

Peter Stuckmann 2nd Würzburg-Workshop on IP 18