What is RF Planning ?

Coverage and Capacity. Calibration of Planning Tools. Frequency Planning.

What is RF Optimization?
Network Analysis. Parameter Tuning. Maintain and Improve KPIs.

RF PlanningGSM Bands: GSM 900 (P-GSM)

890 915 MHz (Uplink) 935 960 MHz (Downlink) 124 : Number of Available ARFCNs.

GSM 1800 (DCS)

1710 1785 MHz (Uplink) 1805 1880 MHz (Downlink) 374 : Number of Available ARFCNs.

Single Site
GSM 900 / GSM 1800 (DCS) Single BCCH

Dual Band / BCCH Site

GSM 900 + GSM 1800 Dual BCCH

Concentric Site
GSM 900 & GSM 1800 Single BCCH

Coverage:

Depends upon the area (e.g. Urban, Rural, Hilly, Highway) Frequency is inversely proportional to the Wave Length Example: highway (Considering the long area but very low traffic)

Capacity:

Always comes with coverage area Capacity must be known properly before deciding for Coverage No. of radios must be finalized as per Capacity of the area

Tools
are used to extract raw counters in statistical form (e.g.: Making Pivot Charts) to analyze the KPIs.

Log Files analysis using TEMS (RF Tool)

TEMS is an Ericsson propriety Used for Air Interface Analysis Provide information of all three functional layers of GSM

Parameter Tuning to improve KPIs as mentioned:

CSSR ( Call Setup Success Rate) DCR ( Drop Call Rate) HoSR ( Hand over Success Rate)

KPIs are needed to measure cost efficient and QoS of the radio network and planning areas which possibly need assessments.

Cost

efficiency Effective usage of network and frequecy bandwidth Cell success rate

In general, Drive Test (DT) can be defined as the methods used to determine the actual condition of the radio performance of a service provider (operator) by collectiong the data in certain area. Here are some of functions of DT:

Analyzing the causes of customer complaints of a service Find problems or maintenance on the radio network To analyze the results of the optimization process To ensure its services performance remain satisfactory by conducting regular DT

There are several commonly used software for drive testing, such as TEMS Investigation (from Ericsson), or the Nemo Outdoor (from Nokia). The one that our campus has in MobileCommLab is TEMS softwares and handsets. We could use TEMS 6 for GSM or TEMS 8 for UMTS(WCDMA) drive test. Now, heres the steps in DT :

Before perform a DT, we should make a checklist of hardware used, i.e.: Laptop with charger and USB hub License dongle for TEMS 8 TEMS handsets, charger, and data cables 2G/3G SIM cards GPS and data cable Inverter and the cable terminal Battery (for GPS) and the battery charger

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During drive Test the call(real time data) is recorded for future assistance and creating log files. These files are exported to MAP INFO in compatible mode, to get the actual picture of the signal strengths and other parameters(HO etc)

DRIVE TEST MODES: Idle mode Dedicated mode Scanner mode