GPRS Network Planning Aspects

Telecom Network Planning Global Jari Ryynnen

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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Contents

Nokia GPRS Releases

Nokia GPRS Network - Structure

Network Planning Procedure and Services GPRS Mobility Management GPRS Power Control

GPRS and GSM Resource Sharing

GPRS Coding Schemes Capacity Planning Frequency Planning Coverage Planning GPRS Support in Totem Nokia NMS for GPRS GPRS Statistics and Counters GPRS and Other Features
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NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

GPRS Growth Stages & Nokia Releases

Nokia Release 1 GPRS Mobile Penetration 60% Nokia Release 2 Nokia Release 3

Low penetration Basic GPRS terminals Cost effective network

wide introduction of GPRS

Growing penetration High end terminals

appear

High GPRS penetration & growing traffic volumes GPRS is a standard

feature in all mobiles

40%

Enhanced GPRS
Services Increased GPRS NW capacity

Full set of GPRS

services Optimised NW operation

20%

0%

2000

2001

2002

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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Nokia GPRS Network - Structure

PSTN Network
Short Message Service Centre

SMSC
Home Location Register

MSC

SS7 NW Billing System

Charging Gateway

HLR

NMS

BTS

BSC
PCU

Serving GPRS Support Node

SGSN

CG Internet

Integrated Network Management

InterPLMN Network

BG
Border Gateway Domain Name Systems

GPRS Backbone IP Network

GGSN

Corporate
Intranet
Firewall

DNS

Legal Intercept

Gateway GPRS Support Node

Router

Server
Local Area NW

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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Nokia GPRS Network - Capacity

1 PCU 2Mbit/s data processing for GPRS One PCU can be freely connected up to 64 cells, 128 TRXs, 256 radio channels MAX 8 PCUs / BSC

BTS

BSC
PCU

Serving GPRS Support Node

SGSN

GPRS Backbone IP Network GGSN

Gateway GPRS Support Node

Packet Processing 20 Mbit/s mean packet processing capacity (1.3 Mbit/s per PAPU) 48 Mbit/s peak packet processing capacity Subscribers 120 000 Attached subscribers up to 2 IP contexts per subscriber

Data Transfer Capacity 16Mbit/s (4-8kpps) Supports 50 000 active PDP contexts

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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GPRS Network Planning Procedure

GPRS Planning Services

Pre-Planning

GPRS Planning Process

Capacity Calculation for Dimensioning and RollOut Planning

Coverage Design for Dimensioning and Roll-Out Planning

Initial Network Configuration Traffic and Performance Analysis of Existing Network Definition of the Radio Interface Design Criteria Preliminary Capacity Planning Preliminary Coverage / Frequency Planning

Capacity Planning Totem

Monitoring Network Doctor NDW

Detailled Planning NMS/2000

NPS/X 3.3
Frequency Planning Coverage Planning

PlanEdit CDW
Parameter Planning

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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Radio Network Planning

Radio NW Capacity Planning

Capacity calculation in Netdim Capacity calculation in Totem 3.1

INPUT Speech traffic Data traffic C/I FH, IUO, IFH

OUTPUT
Required # of TRXs Throughput / Capacity

Paging capacity estimation

(by adjusting the size of RA and LA)

Radio NW Frequency Planning Frequency Planning with NPS/X 3.3 Throughput requirement must be considered in frequency

planning Higher Throughput -> Higher C/I requirement Dedicated frequencies can be allocated for GPRS use if wanted Soft Capacity features (IFH, FH) increase the throughput

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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Radio Network Planning

Coverage Planning

Coverage prediction with NPS/X for the existing network Using the existing coverage or an additional coverage to improve the throughput:

Microcells Separate indoor sites Metrosite Concept

Flexible capacity / coverage GSM900 - GSM1800 TRXs in the same BTS Shared or Dedicated GPRS capacity (TS, TRX, band basis)

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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Radio Network Planning

Radio NW Parametrisation according to the stated quality targets

PlanEdit, NMS, CellularDataWarehouse (CDW) to handle all the parameters GPRS activation parameters Cell reselection parameters (C1 and C2) PC parameters (Uplink in Release 1) Load control parameters
GPRS capacity (dedicated, shared) HSCSD load control

Quality Monitoring and Optimisation

New GPRS related counters in BSC

Combined NMS/NetworkDataWarehouse (NDW) statistics for speech and GPRS GPRS support in TOM for drive tests

GPRS Interworking with other soft capacity features

IUO/IFH (Regular layer for GPRS -> higher reuse, high throughput)
FH (Reduction in interference -> higher throughput) Dual Band (Flexible, good quality -> high throughput)
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NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

BCCH and GPRS Existing BCCH modified to include new parameters for GPRS No reduction in cell traffic capacity when introducing GPRS Signaling capacity shared by Circuit Switched & GPRS

Informs if SI14 and SI15 are sent

System info 13 System info 14 System info 15

Frequency hopping information -MA list etc...

GPRS Mobile

Packet power control & interference measurement information

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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GPRS Mobility Management

Location Area (LA)
MSC/VLR Gs Interface SGSN

Routing Area (RA)

Routing Areas used for GPRS Mobility Management

For simplicity, can be the same than LA (GSM specs: RA <= LA) Needed signaling / paging capacity depends on the size of RA In IDLE mode no GPRS Mobility Management In STANDBY mode periodic Routing Area Update In READY mode a Cell Update when MS changes the cell
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NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

GPRS Cell Selection and Reselection

GPRS mobile cell selection / reselection the same than the Circuit Switched idle mode cell selection

Cell is selected autonomously by the mobile MS uses C1 and C2 parameters for cell selection/reselection
(SYSTEM INFORMATION TYPE 3)

GPRS handover is called as cell reselection Cell reselection can be done during the data connection
C1 C2

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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GPRS Cell Selection and Re-selection

Procedure for cell selection during data transmission:

MS leaves the packet transfer mode and enters the packet idle mode in the old cell
MS reads the system information messages in the new cell MS reports to the SGSN

Initiates uplink TBF (data, signalling or dummy), Makes cell update No data retransmission in inter-PCU HO LLC frame is retransmitted if the PCU has been changed

Data transmission is started in the new cell

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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GPRS Power Control

Uplink Power Control - Due to bursty nature of traffic will not be as effective as for Circuit
Switched traffic

- Open loop PC (specified in ETSI) - PC parameters for MS are transmitted on BCCH

Downlink Power Control - Not supported in the first release - Requires measurement reports
which will load the network

Power control data

- Mobile near far effect a problem

UL Power Control

DL Power Control

Measurement Reports
NOKIA CS / NS / JRy Page 14

Uplink Power Control

PCH = min(G0 - GCH - a*(C + 48),PMAX)

GCH, sets the minimum power level (default: 17 - GSM900, 18 - GSM1800) a, sets the slope for the uplink power level (default: 0.7/0.8) C, normalised received signal level in DL direction
G0, ETSI specified value, 39 - GSM900, 36 - GSM1800 PMAX, max power of the cell allowed for MS
MS power control with the default values:
MS Transmission Power (dBm)

MS Output Power as a function of Received DL Signal Level

35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0
GSM900 GSM1800

-45

-50

-55

-60

-65

-70

-75

-80

-85

-90

-95

-100

-105

Received Signal Level (dBm)

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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-110

GPRS and GSM Resource Sharing

Circuit Switched traffic has priority Also GPRS dedicated time slots can be defined In each cell Circuit Switched & Packet Switched territories are defined Territories consist of consecutive timeslots GPRS can be set to favour the BCCH Transceiver -> higher throughput
Temporary GPRS capacity Default GPRS capacity TRX 1 TRX 2
CCCH TS TS TS TS TS TS TS

Circuit Switched Territory Circuit / Packet Switched Territory

TS

TS

TS

TS

TS

TS

TS

TS

Territory upgrade until the Default GPRS Capacity and in interval of Territory Upgrade Guard Time
NOKIA CS / NS / JRy Page 16

Territory downgrade according to the Circuit Switched traffic

Dedicated GPRS Capacity

GPRS and GSM Resource Sharing

Parameters
Parameters for Territory management:

GPRSenabled (BTS-level) GPRSenabledTRX (TRX-level) DedicatedGPRScapacity (BTS-level, %) DefaultGPRScapacity (BTS-level, %) PreferBCCHfreqGPRS (BTS-level) TerritoryUpdateGuardTimeGPRS (BSC-level) effect of introducing GPRS on NW Quality & Capacity

GPRS territory parameters can be changed when:

Online when the cell GPRS capability is set off by GPRSenabled parameter or The cell is locked.

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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Resource Sharing between GPRS MS

Several mobiles can share one timeslot Mobiles are queued - maximum 7 Uplink, 9 Downlink Uplink State Flag used to tell which mobiles turn to transmit
Uplink State Flag
TS 1

New MS
TS 2 TS 3

Multislot Mobile

Timeslot selected to give maximum throughput Each mobile gets 1 / (no. of MS in queue) of the channels capacity
NOKIA CS / NS / JRy Page 18

RLC / LLC Transmission

LLC frame
SGSN

LLC retransmissions

-max 12160 information bits

LLC frame Gb RLC blocks

BSC PCU

-a header of 32 bits

-ack/non-acknowledged modes RLC block

-160 information bits with CS-1 = 8 kbit/s -a MAC header of 21 bits -acknowledgement every 18 blocks, if retransmissions more often

BTS

4 interleaved bursts
RLC retransmissions

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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GPRS Coding Schemes

Coding Scheme Nokia GPRS Release 1
CS1
CS2 CS3 CS4

Payload (bits) per RLC block*

181
268 312 428

Theoretical Data Rate (kbit/s)

13.4 15.6 21.4
Error Correction Data

9.05

CS1 & CS2 More Data - Implemented in ALL Nokia BTS without HW change = CS3 & CS4 Less Error Correction - Will not fit in normal 16kbit/s Abis TRAU frame - Feature candidate for future release New TRX for TalkFamily & MetroSite Not feasible for PrimeSite & 2nd Generation * RLC Block = 456 bits after puncturing
NOKIA CS / NS / JRy Page 20

GPRS Coding Schemes

Throughput versus C/I, link level simulations

All Nokia BTS support GPRS without any modification (CS1 & CS2) For signalling only CS1 is used (ETSI) 8 Timeslot parallel connections supported
Network throughput - 1 Timeslot
Typical NW C/I Minimum Average

Network throughput - 3 Timeslots

Typical NW C/I Minimum Average

16 14 12 Kbit/s 10

CS-3 CS-2

50 CS-3 40 CS-2 CS-4 CS-1

CS-4
Kbit/s 10 15 C/I 20 25 30 20 10 0 0 5 0 5 10 15 C/I CS-1

8 6
4 2 0

20

25

Nokia Simulations - RLC polling interval = 18 blocks, non-frequency hopping)

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy Page 21

GPRS Coding Scheme Selection

All Calls start with CS1

Change to CS2 based on successful transmission (without retransmissions)

Retransmissions always with the same coding scheme After unsuccessful retransmissions, the coding changed back to CS1 Other alternatives also under study, like RXQUAL or C/I based link adaptation CS1 LLC All Blocks OK CS2
LLC

CS2 CS2

All Blocks OK
Required Retransmissions CS1

LLC

LLC

CS1

All Blocks OK

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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Capacity Planning

GPRS bandwidth can be estimated via the voice time slot usage

E.g. 1 TRX cell with 7 traffic TSs

Offered voice traffic: 2.88 Erl (Blocking=2%) For GPRS: 7 - 2.88 = 4.12 Erl
available GPRS time slots 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1

GPRS bandwidth

no fixed GPRS time slots fixed GPRS Tss = number of TRXs one fixed GPRS TS in the cell 2 3 4 number of TRXs 5 6

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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BSS Capacity Dimensioning

(CS1, control signalling included)
200 180
GPRS Capacity (kbit/s)

6TRX (44TCH) 4TRX (30TCH)

160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Circuit Switched Load (erl) 2% Blocking 2% Blocking 2% Blocking 2TRX (14TCH)

Based on Nokia Research Center simulations

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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GPRS User Throughput - Web Pages

2TRX Cell with 4.1 Erl Circuit Switched Load (50% loaded) 18 16 14 12 Mean kbit/s 10 8 6 3TS Mobile 6TS Mobile Coding Scheme CS1

4
2 0 0

1TS Mobile

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Offered GPRS Load kbit/s Note ! Due to larger packet sizes in FTP and email applications rates should be better
NOKIA CS / NS / JRy Page 25

Retransmission Percentage GPRS Simulation Example

Retransmission percentage vs. average CIR
Macro 2/6, 1-slot, WWW traffic
100 80

Retransmission [%] CS-1 Retransmission [%] CS-2 Retransmission [%] CS-3

0 10 20 30

60 40 20 0
Average burst CIR over the w hole netw ork [dB]

Retransmission [%] CS-4

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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C/I versus Throughput Network level simulations

Throughputs vs. CIR. Shaded areas describe the regions where each
coding scheme is best.

C/I 20dB is required for high throughput -> requires a good quality network!

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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Frequency Planning
Sonera Simulations

Effect on frequency reuse patterns, voice traffic with 2% blocking as background load
Outage probability (C/I=9 dB, TRXs=3)
16

Reuse 9 with voice traffic + 100% GPRS load has the same interference probability than Reuse 7 with only voice traffic!! 2-3 dB additional interference with full GPRS load

14 12 10
p (%)

K=7 K=9 K=12 K=13 K=16 K=19

8 6 4 2 0 GPRS_0%

GPRS_25%

GPRS_50% GPRS load

GPRS_75%

GPRS_100%

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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Coverage Planning Sonera Simulations

10 % outage probability is typical criteria in network planning

Carrier
30 GPRS_0%

C/I with outage probability 10 %

25

GPRS_50% GPRS_100%

R
20

C/I (dB)

15

50% GPRS load worsens C/I by 1 dB

10

100% GPRS load worsens C/I by 2 dB

0.25

0.30

0.35

0.40

0.45

0.50

0.55

0.60

0.65

0.70

0.75

0.80

0.85

0.90

0.95

r/R
NOKIA CS / NS / JRy Page 29

1.00

GPRS Support in Totem

INPUT OUTPUT Required # of TRXs Throughput / Capacity

Capacity Calculation for Dimensioning and Roll-Out Planning

Speech traffic

Data traffic
C/I FH, IUO, IFH

Coverage Design An estimated GPRS throughput (kbit/s) with different channel

coding schemes in an existing network can be shown

A coverage plan to fulfil the required GPRS throughput can be

prepared

Coming 12/99??
NOKIA CS / NS / JRy Page 30

Nokia NMS for GPRS

Combined GSM and Data Network
management
Nokia NMS for GPRS

Integrated access: all

applications/tools can have a seamless access from the same terminal

S N M P IP

Q 3

Integrated fault management:

- SNMP traps from the IP backbone - Q3 Alarms from the GSM network

GSM

Integrated Performance
Management allowing the collection and monitoring of both GSM and data related counters

Seamless growth path from the current NMS/2000 GSM management system to the GPRS System Solution
NOKIA CS / NS / JRy Page 31

Process centric view

Operator Processes in GPRS Network Management
Building

Adding SGSN's Adding GGNS's Downloading GPRS SW

Radio Network Planning IP network Planning IP Address management Security Planning

Performance Reporting Operating Network Monitoring Trouble Management Activating GPRS Adding/changing GPRS subscriber parameters

Planning

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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GPRS Statistics and Counters

A lot of new counters are proposed for GPRS. Here are some examples:
Number of data RLC blocks Coding Scheme CS 1 CS 2 Number of data retransmitted RLC blocks Number of RLC control blocks

Uplink 56 27

Downlink 108 80

Uplink 8 3

Downlink 22 10

Uplink 8 -

Downlink 20 -

Number of RTSLs requested / allocated for one TBF 1 Request Uplink Request Downlink Allocated Uplink Allocated Downlink 2 3 4 5-8

17

21

13

13

22

15

15

17

10

17

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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BSC Statistics for GPRS

Available Measurement

PCU measurement Traffic measurement Resource availability measurement Resource access measurement Handover measurement Availability measurement

- 65 counters - 7 counters - 4 counters - 30 counters - 2 counters - 1 counter

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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BSC Statistics for GPRS

Formula examples : Comparing of CS1 & CS2

Ratio of CS1 and CS2 for RLC data blocks = (A + B) / (C + D)

Comparing of uplink and downlink

Ratio of uplink and downlink RLC data blocks = (A + C) / (B + D)

where A = Counter for number of RLC data blocks in uplink with CS1 coding scheme
B = Counter for number of RLC data blocks in downlink with CS1 coding scheme

C = Counter for number of RLC data blocks in uplink with CS2 coding scheme
D = Counter for number of RLC data blocks in downlink with CS2 coding scheme

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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BSC Statistics for GPRS

Formula examples : Ratio of retransmitted data and a whole transmitted data on uplink and downlink

Ratio of transmitted data and a whole transmitted data RLC data blocks with CS1 coding = (C + D) / (A + B)
where A = Counter for number of RLC data blocks in uplink with CS1 coding scheme
B = Counter for number of RLC data blocks in downlink with CS1 coding scheme C = Counter for number of retransmitted RLC data blocks in uplink with CS1 coding scheme

D = Counter for number of retransmitted RLC data blocks in downlink with CS1 coding
scheme

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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BSC Statistics for GPRS

Formula examples : Ratio of control blocks and data blocks on uplink and downlink

Ratio of RLC control blocks and data blocks CS1 coding = (E + F) / (A + B)

where A = Counter for number of RLC data blocks in uplink with CS1 coding scheme
B = Counter for number of RLC data blocks in downlink with CS1 coding scheme E = Counter for number of control RLC blocks in uplink with CS1 coding scheme F = Counter for number of control RLC blocks in downlink with CS1 coding scheme

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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GPRS and Other Features

IUO/IFH:

GPRS MS doesn't have access to the IUO/IFH super layer At start low GPRS traffic -> OK to use only regular layer Release1 does not support Network requested cell re-selection No IUO C/I estimation Less capacity for GPRS High reuse on the regular layer -> high throuhput More interference for the regular layer because of GPRS traffic
Frequency Hopping:

Basically FH improves the GPRS throughput With tight reuse schemes the GPRS throughput will suffer With BB FH, TS0 cannot be used for GPRS (GSM specs., different FH group) BCCH TRX preference doesnt help with BB FH

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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GPRS and Other Features

Dual Band:

DB 1800 layer is normally less interfered -> more suitable at the beginning for
the GPRS service

In Idle mode, the C2 parameter is used to suck the DB traffic to 1800 layer,
the same parameter is used in GPRS Release 1 for GPRS cell selection HSCSD:

Has priority over GPRS but can be controlled by HSCSD load parameters
Extended cell:

GPRS is not supported in Extended cell in Release1 -- so ETRX can not carry
GPRS TCHs Satellite Abis:

GPRS is not supported over Satellite Abis (long delay)

Forced Handover For O&M Reason:

If there are GPRS TSLs in the TRX to be blocked, BSC moves those TSLs to
CS territory before TRX blocking
NOKIA CS / NS / JRy Page 39

Explanations TBF

A Temporary Block Flow (TBF) is a physical connection used by the two RR entities to support the unidirectional transfer of LLC PDUs on packet data physical channels.
The TBF is allocated radio resource on one or more PDCHs and comprises a number of RLC/MAC blocks carrying one or more LLC PDUs. A TBF is temporary and is maintained only for the duration of the data transfer (i.e. until there are no more RLC/MAC blocks to be transmitted and, in RLC acknowledged mode, all of the transmitted RLC/MAC blocks have been successfully acknowledged by the receiving entity).

NOKIA CS / NS / JRy

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