Wireless Comunication /Wireless Network /Wireless MiddleWARE/Sensor Network

Preplanning
• The preplanning phase covers the assignments and preparation before the
actual network planning is started.
• As in any other business it is an advantage to be aware of the current
market situation and competitors.
• The network planning criteria is agreed with the customer. As specified
earlier, the requirements depend on many factors, the main criteria being
the coverage and quality targets.
• The network planning criteria is used as an input for network dimensioning.
Following are the basic inputs for dimensioning:
– coverage requirements, the signal level for outdoor, in-car and indoor with the
coverage probabilities;
– quality requirements, drop call rate, call blocking;
– frequency spectrum, number of channels, including information about possible
needed guard bands;
– subscriber information, number of users and growth figures;
– traffic per user, busy hour value;
– services.
• The dimensioning gives a preliminary network plan as an output, which is
then supplemented in coverage and parameter planning phases to create a
more detailed plan.

Planning

• The planning phase takes input from the dimensioning, initial
network configuration. This is the basis for nominal planning,
which means radio network coverage and capacity planning
with a planning tool.
• The nominal plan does not commit certain site locations but
gives an initial idea about the locations and also distances
between the sites.
• The nominal plan is a starting point for the site survey, finding
the real site locations. The nominal plan is then
supplemented when it has information about the selected site
locations; as the process proceeds coverage planning
becomes completed.
– The final site locations are agreed
• The output of the planning phase is the final and detailed
coverage and capacity plans. Coverage maps are made for
the planned area and final site locations and configurations.

Detailed Planning

• After the planning phase has finished and the site location and
configurations are known detailed planning can be started.
• The detailed planning phase includes frequency, adjacency and parameter
planning.
• Planning tools have frequency planning algorithms for automatic frequency
planning.
• The planning tool can also be utilized in manual frequency planning. The
tool uses interference calculation algorithms and the target is to minimize
firstly the co-channel interference and also to find as low an adjacent
channel interference as possible.
• Frequency planning is a critical phase in network planning. The number of
frequencies that can be used is always limited and therefore the task here is
to find the best possible solution.
• Neighbour planning is normally done with the coverage planning tool using
the frequency plan information.
• In the parameter planning phase a recommended parameter setting is
allocated for each network element.
• For radio planning the responsibility is to allocate parameters such as
handover control and power control and define the location areas and set
the parameters accordingly.