25.4.

LTE PRACH Planning

The PRACH planning is a very complex procedure that depends on many variables (sector size,
mobile speed, traffic conditions, etc.) and has many degrees of freedom (time, frequency and
code). For this reason, the planning algorithm has been divided into different uncoupled stages to
facilitate the process but without losing flexibility: resource planning, frequency planning and
preamble sequence planning.

The time domain (or resource) planning algorithm is based on finding the PRACH configuration
for each sector within a site that minimizes the sub-frame collision with respect to the total
number of sub-frames for every pair of sectors. The impact of the collision is evaluated by means
of a cost function. This optimization process is done on a per site basis.

The frequency domain planning algorithm consists in finding the frequency offset for each sector
that minimizes another cost function. In this case, the cost function contains a component
associated with the time domain collision, but also a more general component that e.g. considers
the impact the LTE interference, among other factors. Unlike the time domain planning, the
optimization process in frequency domain is done globally, i.e. per network basis. OFDM sub-
carriers are orthogonal, which means that the allocation of the random access channel on disjoint
resource blocks avoids interference. So, a smart frequency domain planning can help to avoid
collisions and to facilitate the next step, i.e. PRACH planning in code domain.

There are 838 Zadoff-Chu sequence indexes available to generate PRACH preambles, so a smart
code domain planning can also help to avoid collisions for a more reliable PRACH transmission.
The algorithm plans these Zadoff-Chu sequence roots among the different sectors so that the
radio distance is maximized between them, but also considering the flexibility that the time and
frequency domain give.

The user can select which sectors to include in the planning process through the PRACH
Configuration tab of the Menus > Edit > Sector > LTE window (see Figure 25.11, LTE PRACH
Configuration Settings). Additionally, the next settings related to PRACH
Configuration/Planning are available for every LTE sector:

Preamble Format: It shows the current preamble format. There are four PRACH
preamble formats (0-3) that differ on the cyclic prefix length and on the sequence length.
Resource Config/Index: The first text dialog shows the absolute Resource Configuration
for the selected Preamble Format, whereas the second one (non-editable) displays the
Resource Configuration Index (note that values 30, 46, 60, 61 and 62 are not permitted).
Cyclic Shift Config: It determines the length of the cyclic shift length taking the sector
speed into account.
Frequency Offset: It defines the position of the first resource block for PRACH
transmission.
1st Root Index: It defines the first Zadoff-Chu Sequence index.
Root Length: It indicates the length of Zadoff-Chu Sequence.
High Speed Sector: It defines if the sectors mainly have high or low mobility UEs.
Optimize: The PRACH planning is computed for this sector only if this box is checked.
 button: The user will be able to specify the minimum and maximum allowed root
sequence indexes per sector.
Cell Range: This setting is out of the PRACH Configuration tab, belongs to the General
Settings parameters, and it contains the cell range, which is used during the execution of
the PRACH planning algorithms. The are three ways to populate the cell range:
o Directly by manually entering the value in the dialog.
o During OSS data import through the ODG interface.
o By computing the cell range through Menus > ACP > Utilities > Compute LTE
Cell Range (see the section called Compute LTE Cell Range for more details).

Figure 25.11. LTE PRACH Configuration Settings

The LTE PRACH Planning functionality can be access at Menus > Network Planning > LTE
PRACH Planning. Each of the above mentioned stages (resource planning, frequency planning
and preamble sequence planning) can be selected on the PRACH Planning tab of that window, as
displayed in Figure 25.12, LTE PRACH Planning Window.

Important
 Ericsson recommends to execute all the stages sequentially. Note that each one of them
has to be executed separately.

Figure 25.12. LTE PRACH Planning Window

 PRACH Resource Planning: It calculates the optimum Resource Configuration Index for
every sector, based on the Preamble Format and the Resource Configuration. The
computation of the preamble format uses the cell range and the project needs to have RF
data in order to execute this PRACH planning option.

Note
When resource configuration is not available, the execution of PRACH Frequency or
Sequence Planning would require to set the values manually. The assumption of time
collisions between sectors of the same site can be emulated by setting the same resource
configuration to all the selected sectors through Menus > Edit > Sector > LTE > PRACH
Configuration. The assumption of non-time collisions between sectors of the same site can
be done by carefully setting the resource configuration properly. This task is very time
consuming, but it can be carried out automatically using the utility to avoid time collisions
per site, as described in the section called Avoid time collisions per site.

PRACH Frequency Planning: It calculates the optimum values for the PRACH
Frequency Offset.
PRACH Sequence Planning: It finds the optimum High Speed Sector flags, and PRACH
Root Sequence. The user can enable two options:
o Compute Cyclic Shift Configuration: only when this option is enabled, the cyclic
shift configuration is computed during the optimization.

Important
The number of PRACH Root Sequences (the root length) is computed based on the
cell range only if the Compute Cyclic Shift Configuration option is checked.

o Enforce the same sequence per site when possible: when this option is checked,
the optimizer will allocate the same PRACH root sequences to sectors of the same
site as far as there are no time collisions among them.
o Make first root index multiple of: with this option, the user will be able to specify
a root sequence index increment value, so that the initial index in every sector will
be a multiple of that increment.
o Enforce consecutive site indexes starting with azimuth: if this option is selected,
the initial root sequence index values per sector in a site will be consecutive,
growing clockwise. Additionally, the user will be able to specify the azimuth from
which the optimizer starts assigning the minimum root sequence index value.
Notice that if the increment defined in the previous option is lower than the
number of required indexes, intra-site collision will happen. This functionality is
only available if the Make first root index multiple of option is enabled.

Note
Default PRACH sequence Planning involves two steps: the first step is the dimensioning
of the Cyclic Shift Configuration based on the cell range, and the second is to optimize the
PRACH root sequence. There are some scenarios for which the PRACH root sequence
index can be provided, which means that Cyclic Shift Configuration is not user defined.
 Ericsson Cell Optimizer allows the user to enable/disable the Cyclic Shift Configuration
dimensioning in order to accommodate for this restriction (see image Figure 25.12, LTE
PRACH Planning Window, option 'Compute Cyclic Shift Configurations'). In case the
option is disabled, the planner reads the Cyclic Shift Configuration values specified in
Menus > Edit > Sector > LTE > PRACH Configuration.

As seen in Figure 25.12, LTE PRACH Planning Window, the user may also modify the
following settings:

Number of Iterations: The number of optimization iterations to run.

Technology / Band: Technology and band for which the algorithm will be executed.
Carrier Number: The Carrier Number to be planned.
Seed Optimizer with random plan.

Tip
An OLAP report that lists all the PRACH collisions is available at Menus > OLAP
Table > Network > LTE > LTE PRACH Root Sequence Reuse.

There are several settings related to the objective planning process:

Interference Weights

The cost component associated with the interference level prevents the tool from
assigning the same PRACH configuration to sectors that might cause high interference to
each other.

o Geometry: This component of the cost function gives higher penalty to collisions
between sectors with higher mutual interference. The level of interference is
computed based on simple internal propagation models, that consider the current
sector antenna pattern gain and horizontal geometry.
o Interference Matrix: It allows PRACH collision penalty weighted by information
extracted from the interference matrix available after importing OSS call traces
through ODG interface. The penalty associated with every collision is calculated
based on the probability of having C/I lower or equal to Min C/I (dB), which can
be specified by the user.
Neighbor Violation Weights

In addition to interference weights, the LTE PRACH optimizer considers 5 different

collision and neighbor criteria, as well as an extra cost component associated with the
interference (the cost component is the same one as described in Section 25.1,
Scrambling Code Planning for the SC planning). Each of these criteria can be weighted
by the user as seen in Figure 25.13, LTE PRACH Optimization - Objective Tab. These
criteria are listed and weighted (by default) in descending order of importance and are as
follows:
 o First Order Violation Weight: Weight for Source collision with Primary Neighbor
Cell.
o Second Order Violation Weight: Weight for collision between Primary Neighbor
Cell and another Primary Neighbor Cell.
o Third Order Violation Weight: Weight for Source collision with Composite
Neighbor Cell.
o Fourth Order Violation Weight: Weight for collision between Primary Neighbor
Cell and Composite Neighbor Cell.
o Fifth Order Violation Weight: Weight for collision between a Composite
Neighbor Cell and another Composite Neighbor Cell.

There are two other settings related to the LTE PRACH Planning process:

Safe Reuse Distance (Km): An extra penalty is applied whenever the reuse distance is
lower than this value. The penalty varies inversely with the distance, and is pondered by
the First Order Violation Weight.
Cost Aggregation Type: With the Sum Aggregation Penalty, it is likely to have few
sectors with very close reuse at the expense of other sectors with larger reuse distance.
An alternative option is to use the Max Aggregation Penalty, which in general will
provide more sectors with less than optimum reuse distance but close to it.

Figure 25.13. LTE PRACH Optimization - Objective Tab