AIRCOM Cingular

Model Tuning Guidance

Thursday 2th December 2004

December 2004

Agenda
Model Calibration Experience
Model Calibration Process
Model Calibration Analysis

December 2004

p
x
E
n
o
i
t
a
r
b
i
l
a
C
l
e
d
Mo

e
c
n
e
i
r
e

December 2004

CW and Model Tuning References

3GIS (Sweden) UMTS, 6 models

Belgacom (Belgium) GSM 900, 6 models
Swisscom (Switzerland) GSM 900/1800
and UMTS, 9 models
Inventis (Switzerland) GSM R, 3 models
Vodafone (Malta) GSM 900, 2 models
Globul (Bulgaria) GSM 900, GSM1800
Oniway (Portugal) UMTS, 4 models
Inquam (Portugal) CDMA2000
Blu (Italy) GSM 1800
Nortel (UK) GSM 1800
Ericsson (UK) GSM 1800
Dolphin (Belgium, Uk) Tetra models
KPN Base (Belgium) GSM 900/1800, 8
Models, 4 for each

TMN (Portugal) GSM900, 1 model

Mascom (Botswana) GSM 900
CHT Taiwan
Brazil GSM 900/1800, 5 models
India BPL GSM 900, 1 Model
AWS (USA) GSM 1900, 2 models
TCI (Iran) GSM 900, 5 models
ESAT Digifone (Ireland) UMTS 3 models
Safaricom (Kenya) GSM 900 2 models
Lucent (Riyadh) GSM 900 1 model
Claro (Brazil) GSM1800 3 models
Globe (Phillipines) GSM900 3 models

December 2004

s
s
e
c
o
r
P

December 2004

CW Measurements and Model Calibration

Process
Propagation
Model
Requirements
Identification

Drive Route
Definition

Site Selection

CW Survey
Campaign
Data Post
Processing
Data
Data
Validation
Validation

Calibration

NO

YES
Report

Pass
Model?

December 2004

Aim of Model Calibration

Characterise the topology with network limits identification of operating range for each
model.

Minimise Standard Deviation Error.

Provide zero mean error
Determine model parameters in accordance to realistic propagation effects existing within
proposed regions.

Make sure calibrated model corresponds well with the collected data data is essential.
Provide cost efficient Nominal Plan

December 2004

Site Selection

More or 10 sites per model. Less number of sites can be considered if

modelled geographical area is fairly small.
Within geographic region of model
Spread of site heights representative of network sites heights within
modelled region

Allow measurements in all clutter types

Rooftop sites are preferred in a case test transmitter has to be mounted

Ease of access

No blocking objects in close vicinity

Nothing unusual, we are characterising the majority of the network not the
minority

December 2004

CW Drive Route Definition

Distance

Must account for expected coverage propagation

Must account for expected interference propagation

Clutter

Sufficient measurement in all local clutter types ( >1000 )

Roads

Avoid street canyons, tunnels, elevated roads, cuttings etc

Mix of radial and tangential roads

Miscellaneous

Do not plan a map along the roads with ground height above the
transmitter antenna. Okumura- Hata model cant model this.
Good balance between measurements taken in LOS and NLOS situations
Do not plan a route across a big water surface, if site is on the one side of
the lake, do not drive other lake side

Data in regions of terrain slope variation

Avoid large blocking objects as high building or long roof

Long enough to ensure sufficient data is captured

Check map data validity

December 2004

CW Measurements

Spectrum clearance

During CW survey allocated test frequency shouldnt be use for other purposes

10-15KHz bandwidth monitoring

Check restrictions on test frequency TX EIRP

Equipment configuration

RF Signals
Accurate Radiated Power setting, EiRP should be greater than 40dBm

Raw/Averaged data

Use Omni antenna with minimum vertical beamwidth of 12 degrees

Directional antenna can be used but in postproccessing everything beyond 3dBm should be dismissed

Driving

Do not drive out of RX noise floor

Avoid street canyons, tunnels, elevated roads, cuttings etc

Distance/Time triggering

Omni Antenna
with Transmitter
attached through
feeder.

In Vehicle,
Receive
equipment
attached to roof
mounted
antenna

December 2004

Sampling - Lee Criteria

Lee Criteria In order to eliminate fast fading from measurements,

minimum 36 samples should be taken over 40. A local mean should
be found for the chosen number of samples.

Common practice is to take 50 samples which gives one sample

every 0.8.

50 samples should be averaged and give the local mean.

December 2004

Slow fading vs Fast fading

Fast fading is fading due to multipath effect.

Fast fading is characterized by Rayleigh probability distribution therefore cant be
modelled by log normal distribution.
Fast fading is superimposed onto signal envelope (slow fading) which we try to model.
Slow fading is fading due to terrain and clutter.
Slow fading follows log normal distribution.
Okumura-Hata is log normal distribution

December 2004

Distance triggering vs time triggering

Distance triggering allows us to easily apply Lee criterion.

Sampling in time triggering is not a problem since Lee states just

minimum number of samples.

Averaging over 40 is problem to implement in time triggering since

there is not constant number of samples over 40 caused by speed
variation.

Whenever possible choose distance triggering.

Time triggering is very difficult to follow Lee criterion due to change in

drive vehicle speed.

December 2004

Total driving route per model

In order for model to be realistic, statistically sufficient number of data

need to be collected.

Aircom practise is to have at least 30000 data.

30000 data gives total driven distance of

30000x40=198km or

20km per site for 1800MHz range.

If this distance is not achievable due to limitation in drivable roads it is

recommended to have more than 10 sites per model.

As stated before, in a case of modelling small geographical area with

3 sites, tuning can be performed with 10000 data or 22km per site.

The more data the model is more realistic

December 2004

Data Post processing

Depends on customer requirements:

Averaged Measurements post processing involves simple conversion into Signia format supported by
Enterprise
Signia data file ( .dat ) contains longitude, latitude (decimal degrees) and received level (dBm)

Every data file must have header file with identical name but with extension .hd.

Header file must have antenna type (identical name to one in Asset3g), Tx power, Tx antenna height,
coordinates.

It is common practice to include all gains and losses under Tx power value and leave other fields relevant to
gain/losses in the header blank. Therefore in a Tx field usually is put:

Tx Ct +Atg Arg+Crl where

Tx-Tx power(dBm),
Ct-cable loss between transmitter and antenna (dB),
Atg-transmitting antenna gain (dBi)
Arg-receiving antenna gain (dBi)
Crl-cable loss between receiver and receiving antenna (dB)

It is important to get the projection system correctly so collected samples are lined up with the vectors in map
data. If vectors are not aligned with measurements, during post process this should be adjusted.

December 2004

CW Data Validation

Compare the site data (photographs, surrounding

clutter and terrain profile) to the Clutter and DTM
layer of the map data provided.

Check the driven routes against vectors within the

map data.

Filter out any invalid data that may cause anomalies

in the calibration process

Make sure that details relating to a site (EIRP,

Location, Height, Antenna file) correspond to
reports from CW Survey.

Use Asset utilities to get visual representation of the

received signal vs distance.

December 2004

Data filtering

Filter clutter types that have less than 500 bins. Clutter offsets or them
will be estimated later in the model tuning process.
Filter out any file which shows extreme in signal level.
Unusually high signal level at far distance can be caused by reflection
over big water surface, or driving along route which is higher than
antenna.
Unusually weak signal level can be caused by driving behind
blocking object.
Okumura Hata cant model above situations, therefore these data
must be filtered out.
With careful route planning filtering can be avoided.
Having more than one file per site makes filtering during post
processing much easier

December 2004

Filtering example-Driving above Tx antenna

December 2004

Filtering example-Blocking object

December 2004

Displaying CW measurements in Asset

Data Types-CW MeasurementsCW Signal

To set up thresholds double click
on CW Signal and specify
thresholds under Categories tab
The same goes for other options
inside CW Measurements

December 2004

d
o
M

g
n
i
n
u
T
l
e

December 2004

Okumura-Hata

Okumura-Hata is a worldwide the most popular model in mobile

telecommunication

It is semi-empirical model.

Limitations:

Based on Okumura measurements in Tokyo in 1968 mathematical

model was published in 1980 by Hata.

Up to 2GHz

No less than 1km

Transmitter antenna always above mobile station antenna

December 2004

Okumura-Hata in Asset

Asset uses slightly modified Okumura-Hata:

Ploss =K1 + K2*log(d) + K3*Hms + K4*log(Hms) + K5*log(Heff) +

K6*log(Heff)*log(d) + K7*Ldiff + Lclutter

d is distance in km between Tx antenna and mobile station

Hms is mobile station height

Heff is effective antenna height in metres

Ldiff is a loss due to diffraction

Lclutter is a clutter loss

Asset has 4 algorithms for calculating effective antenna height

Asset has 4 algorithms for calculating diffraction

December 2004

Asset improvements

K1 near and k2 near are designed to overcome Okumura-Hata

limitation for close distances.

Through Clutter Loss takes into the account clutter profile along
distance d from mobile station to base station.

Advantages in improved accuracy/reduced standard deviation error

and more realistic calculated predictions.

December 2004

Through Clutter Model Definition

Each clutter category is given Through Clutter Loss (dB/km) on the

path between transmitter and receiver.

Through clutter losses are linearly weighted. The clutter nearest the
mobile station has the highest effect.

December 2004

Overview of Model Calibration

There must be project set up (map data, antennas, sites, propagation model)
in order to start tuning
Load CW data
Make appropriate filtering, usually:

-110dBm to -40dBm
125m to 10000

Start with the default values for k parameters

Do Auto Tune
Try all combination of effective antenna height and diffraction algorithms and
determine which one gives the lowest standard deviation
Take note of second and third best

December 2004

CW Window

3g/Asset-Tools-Model Tuning

Highlight Site ID and click Remove

button to remove particular file

Click Add to add measurements file

from its destination, they mast have
extension .hd

December 2004

Model setting

Tools-Model Tuning-Options

Select the model as a start tuning

model. It is recommended to use
default model

Select the resolution of mapping

data

December 2004

Filter seting

Tools-Model Tuning-Options-Filter

If you tune k7 click just NLOS

Set up distance filtering

Set up signal level filtering
Filter out clutter types with
insufficient data by highlighting
them
Click antenna button if directional
antennas were used

December 2004

Auto Tune

Tools-Model Tuning-Auto Tune

Click Auto Tune under Tools tab

Through clutter offsets and clutter

offsets are under Clutter tab

Set up deltas
Click fix box next to the k factor you
dont want to tune
Wait for results
You can apply new parameters by
clicking apply new parameters

December 2004

K parameters

K3 and K4 are not altered. This is because they relate to mobile

height which in a typical cellular system is constant making these
coefficients redundant.

K7 is the diffraction parameter. It can be determined by tuning just

NLOS data.

All K parameters must keep the same polarity as in the original

Okumura Hata model

K1, K2, K7 >0

K3, K5, K6 <0

Above step can be easily fulfil by determining the delta range under
Auto tune window

December 2004

Default K parameters

December 2004

k1,k2 near calibration

If model is not good close to the site, for example up to 700m, auto
tune the model from 700m to 10k. Apply found k parameters.

Tune model again with k5,k6 and k7 locked and filter out distances
above 700m.

Result will be k1near and k2 near.

If standard deviation is still bad try with other distances until you find
the best fit.

December 2004

Clutter offset

Some through clutter offsets and clutter offsets need to be estimated

due to insufficient data.

Estimation is done relative to the clutter offsets with sufficient data.

Clutter offsets must be realistic relative to each other.

Water will have the smallest offset while building and forest the
highest.

December 2004

Adjusting ME

Mean error is usually altered after estimation of clutter offsets.

ME can be easily bring back to 0 by changing k1

If mean error is change k1 to k1+

December 2004

s
i
s
y
l
a
An

December 2004

Model analyses

Make statistical analyses for ME and SD for different distance ranges.

In the range of interest, typically 1km to 4km, following requirements
should be fulfilled

-1 < ME < 1

SD < 8

If ME or SD is outside the above specified values, try with changing

the dual slope distance or take the second best model from the initial
tuning.

December 2004

Example-Coastal Urban 900MHz

15m resolution map
Area considered: densely populated coastal cities.
Used frequency: 935.2MHz
Total of 10 sites were included in tuning process with 80260 points.
Signal strenght threshold set to 40 to -110 dBm.
Distance used for tuning from 125m to 10km.

December 2004

Data Analysis for Coastal Urban 15m

December 2004

Statistical Breakdown for Coastal Urban 15m

No. of
Bins

Mean
Error

Standard Deviation
Actual

Calibration whole
range

80260

6.8

125~250

1030

-0.5

8.1

250~500

2899

-1.1

500~1km

8700

-1.4

7.7

1km~2km

19351

-0.1

7.4

2km~4km

29598

0.9

6.6

4km~8km

17791

-0.4

5.4

8km~16km

891

-1.6

5.2

December 2004

Statistical Breakdown for ME and SD

December 2004

Validation of Tuned Model-Site 1

Apoview site
Calibration whole
range

No. of
Bins

Mean
Error

Standard
Deviation Actual

10668

-1

6.1

125~250

53

4.3

5.6

250~500

368

0.4

7.5

500~1km

1153

-2.7

7.3

1km~2km

2324

-1.5

6.3

2km~4km

4383

0.4

5.9

4km~8km

2343

-2.4

5.1

8km~16km

44

-2.4

4.1

December 2004

Coverage plot Site 1

December 2004

Validation of Tuned Model-Site 2

No. of
Bins

Mean
Error

6354

0.1

6.4

125~250

95

11.6

5.2

250~500

42

2.7

5.7

500~1km

252

-1.8

7.7

1km~2km

1620

-0.9

6.3

2km~4km

3228

6.4

4km~8km

1041

-1.6

4.8

8km~16km

76

-2.9

3.8

Banawa site
Calibration whole
range

Standard
Deviation
Actual

December 2004

Coverage plot Site 2

December 2004