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LTE CELL Planning

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Version: V1.0(20YYMMDD)
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Contents

Frequency Planning
PCI Planning
PRACH Planning
TA Planning
Neighbor Planning

Contents

Frequency Planning
PCI Planning
PRACH Planning
TA Planning
Neighbor Planning

Process for Planning the LTE Network

Information
Collection

PrePlanning

General Process

Coverage area, Radio environment

User Number, Traffic Model,
Service QoS
Available frequency and bandwidth
Link Budget
Network Dimensioning
Output: site number, ideal site location
Simulation based on surveyed site
parameter
Output: Engineering parameter table,
Coverage prediction, etc

Detailed
Planning

Cell Planning

Frequenc
y
Planning

ID and
Name
Planning

TA
Plannin
g

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PCI
Plannin
g

NB Cell
Planning

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X2
Plannin
g
4

PRACH
Planning

Frequency Planning
1x1 frequency Planning
LTE system works on the same frequency band
Frequency bandwidth utilizing is high
X Interference occurs between the UEs on the edge of a cell
(use same resource)

1x3 frequency Planning

LTE system works on the three frequency band
X Frequency bandwidth utilizing is Low
Interference can be decreased
(the three sector of one site working on three different
frequency band)

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Frequency Planning
Example at Band 40 TDD

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Contents

Frequency Planning

PCI Planning
PRACH Planning
TA Planning
Neighbor Planning

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PCI Planning

In LTE systems, each cell has a physical cell identifier (PCI), enabling UE to differentiate radi
o signals of different cells.

In LTE systems, cells are grouped. primary synchronization code (PSC) and secondary synchr
onization code (SSC), where the PSC has three values and SSC has 168 values, totaling 504 PC
Is.
The secondary synchronization sequence on the secondary synchronization channel (SSC

H) determines the cell group ID (

The primary synchronization sequence on the primary synchronization channel (PSCH) det

ermines the cell ID in a cell group. (

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PCI Planning

Planning principles

Availability: The PCI planning must ensure minimum reuse layers and minimum reuse distance to avoid possi
ble conflict.

Extensibility: The initial planning must consider the future capacity expansion to avoid frequent adjustment of
the initial planning result. Some PCI groups and some PCIs of in-use PCI groups can be reserved for future ca
pacity expansion.
Criteria for assigning the PCIs

Reuse distance: The distance of two cells using the same PCI must meet the minimum reuse distance.

Reuse layers: The number of reuse layers refers to the number of eNodeBs separating the two cells using the
same PCI.

Under normal dual-antenna configuration, separating the PCIs of neighboring cells by modulo 3 of the PCIs ca
n separate the downlink RS symbols in the frequency domain, improving the accuracy of channel estimation.

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PCI Mod 3 RS shift among neighbor cells

Frequency domain location of the RS is determined by value of PCI mod 3

If RS is shifted, then it will help for better performance under low load
RS location vs PCI mod 3:

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Port

1 Antenna

PCI Mod 3 RS shift among neighbor cells

RS pattern for
different Antenna
configuration

No. of
Antenna
port

No. of RS per Ant

No. of RS for all
No. of RS for all Ant
port per RB within Ant ports per RB ports in all RBs within
one Symbol
within one Symbol
one Symbol

1
2
4

2
2
2

2
4
4

2* Total No. of RB
4* Total No. of RB
4* Total No. of RB

2 Antenna

ports

4 Antenna

ports

RE
No RS transmit
for this antenna
porttransmitted
RS
or this antenna port

For 4*4 MIMO, the RS of Antenna 3,

4 are transmitted on OFDM symbols
different to that of Antenna 1, 2

R1: RS transmitted by ant 1

R2: RS transmitted by ant 2
R3: RS transmitted by ant 3
R4: RS transmitted by ant 4

Antenna Port 0

Antenna Port 1

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Antenna Port 3

11

PCI Mod 3 Planning

Befor
e

After

We need to check again about PCI Mod3 result, prevent

co-channel interference from same Mod3 result.

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PCI Conflict
PCI conflict is classified into PCI collision and PCI confusion

PCI Collision

PCI Confusion

A PCI collision occurs between two or more intra-frequency

cells that use an identical PCI but are insufficiently isolated.

In this case, UEs in the overlapping area of the two cells

cannot implement signal synchronization or decoding.

A PCI confusion occurs between a detected cell and a neighboring cell

if the two cells have the same frequency and PCI and if the reference
signal received power (RSRP) of the two cells reaches the handover
threshold.
The PCI confusion may lead to UE handover failures or service drops.
Case :
eNodeB mistakenly considers that the detected cell is cell C and then
initiates a handover to cell C. If the spot that the UE is on is not
covered by cell C but cell B, a handover failure may occur.
If two or more neighboring cells of a cell have the same frequency and
PCI, there is a PCI conflict between these neighboring cells

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PCI Conflict Detection Example

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PCI Planning Example

PCI group code from 120 to 167 for IBC eNodeB

PCI 360 to 503
Propose 25% buffer for future expansion (468 to 503 reserved for future)
PCI group code from 0 to 119 for Outdoor eNodeB
PCI 0 to 359
Propose 25% buffer for future expansion (270 to 359 reserved for future)
Planning rule

To reduce PCI mod 3 result competition among neighboring cells to get better performance und
er low load situation (referring to following 2 slides)

To avoid PCI mod 30 result competition among neighboring cells to avoid SRS interfere neighbor
cell PRACH

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How to Plan PCI Manually

Assume there is a new site insert into existing

area
Step 1. Mark the PCI Mod 3 results of existing cells on
the map.
Step 2. Decide the PCI Mod 3 result for the new site
on the map. Try the best to avoid same result cover
same area.
Step 3. Choose un-used PCI for the new site following
the PCI mod 3 result. New PCI shall not same to any
neighbor cell.

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Contents

Frequency Planning
PCI Planning

PRACH Planning
TA Planning
Neighbor Planning

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PRACH Planning Basic Concept

PRACH ( Physical Random Access Channel)

ZC root Sequence

The channel used for transmitting the preamble sequence which is needed during UE random acc
ess

a Zadoff Chu sequence has good self-correlation and cross correlation.

There are 838 ZC root sequences, each 838 ZC root sequence is 839 bit
The ZC sequence is used as the PRACH root sequence

Preamble sequence

Preamble sequences of cells are generated through the cyclic shift of the ZC root sequence.
The number of cyclic shift is Ncs

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Purpose of PRACH Planning

Through the PRACH Planning, engineer allocate ZC root sequence indexes and specify Ncs Values for cells acco
rding to the cell feature.

Different ZC root sequence indexes are allocated to generate different preamble sequence for neighboring cell
s. In this way, the interference caused by the same preamble sequence of neighboring cells is reduced.

There are 64 preamble for each cell. After logical allocation of ZC root sequence, the generated 64 preamble of
neighboring cell will be different, so the interference will be reduced

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Factor Affecting the Access Radius

Preamble format
Preamble Format

Maximum Cell Radius

0
1
2
3

Ncs

14.5 km
77.3 km
29.5 km
100 km

N CS 1.04875 (6.67 r TMD 2)

N CSof
The unit of r is km. The unit of
is sec. The value
TMD
subject to the cell radius and maximum delay extension.

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is

PRACH Planning Example

Preambles are generated from root sequence (Zadoff-Chu sequence) and its cyclic shift step (Ncs)

Cell Radius (r) 10 km for low speed cells

TMD indicates the maximum multi-path delay spread. For Huawei LTE products, T MD equals to 5 milliseconds

UE timing deviation is 2 milliseconds

Ncs > 1.04875(6.67*10 +5+2) = 77. 03

According to the table Ncs for preamble format 0 to 3

~ The Ncs value is 93 , the Ncs configuration number 11

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PRACH Planning Example

The number of preamble that can be generated is calculated as follow :

839
9
93

Num
That is each index can generate 9 preamble sequences,

The number of ZC sequences is calculated as follows:

64
m
8
9
- -> in this case, 8 root sequence index are required to generate 64 preamble sequence .

So the number of available root sequence index is 104 ( 0,8,16, 824)

The available root sequence indexes are assigned to cells. The assignment principal is similar to those PCI.

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PRACH Planning Example

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Contents

Frequency Planning
PCI Planning

PRACH Planning
TA Planning
Neighbor Planning

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Tracking Area Planning Principles

A Tracking Area corresponds to the Routing Area (RA) used in UMTS and GSM/Edge Radio Access

Network (URAN and GERAN). The TA consists of a cluster of eNodeBs having the same Tracking Ar
ea Code (TAC)
The TA provides a way to track UE location in idle mode. UE will initials TAL update once cross the

TAL barder in idle mode and will not when cross TA boarder
TAL information is used by the MME when paging idle UE to notify them of incoming data connect

ions
One TAL can support up to 16 TAs, each TA supports maximum 100 eNodeB in one MME

TAC = Tracking Area Code (1~65533, and 65535) (0 and

65534 are reserved by 3GPP)
TAI = Tracking Area ID = MCC + MNC + TAC
TAL = Tracking Area List
1 TAL = up to 16 TAC
TAL value range: 0~ 65534
Max number of TALs per USN = 20000

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TA Planning Principle

A TA should be medium. The limitations by the EPC must be considered.

When the suburban area and urban area are covered discontinuously, an independent TA is used
for the suburban area.

TA should be planned for a continuous geographical area to avoid TA discrete distribution.

The paging area cannot be located in different MMEs.

The mountain or river in the planned area can be used as TA boundary to reduce the overlapping
depth of two TAs. In this way, fewer location updates are performed on the edge of TA.

The LAC planning in the existing 2G/3G networks can serve as a reference for planning TAC

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TA Network Design

S-GW

Internet
Internet

One TAL contains multiple TAC, with this design when UE in idle
condition move to different TAC under one TAL there is no TAU.
When MME want to deliver downlink packet data for that UE MME
will send to latest TAC where the UE located. If the UE is
unreachable MME will try to paging another TAC under one TAL until
found. This design will take a time compare with the previous
design.

UE
Under
move
One
to
new
TAL TAL
no need
need
TAU

TAL 1

TAC 2

TAC 1

TAC 4
TAC 3

TAL 2

TAC 8
TAC 7

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Last TAC is 8
but UE move
to TAC 7, MME
will try paging
another TAC
under TAL2

TAC 6

TAC 5

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Contents

Frequency Planning
PCI Planning
PRACH Planning
TA Planning

Neighbor Planning

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Neighbor Cell Planning

LTE Network require quick hard handover, so the Neighboring cell Planning is very imp
ortant

LTE Neighboring cell planning content : Intra-Freq Neighboring cell, Inter-freq neighbor
ing cell, Inter-RAT neighboring Cell

LTE neighboring cell Planning principle :

Geographically adjacent cell are used as neighboring cell

in common scenario, bidirectional neighboring relationship is configured
The distance between eNB is small (0.3 1km ) in urban areas, and therefore a large number of neig
hboring cell are recommended
If the adjacent cell of a cell in front of a lake, sea, or a wide road is also in front of the lake, sea or a
wide road, the adjacent cell is configured as its neighboring cell.

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Neighbor Cell Planning

The method of LTE neighbor cell planning is similar to neighbor planning of GSM/WCDMA/CDMA.
Currently, the planning method and tool for LTE are available.
The configuration is different from GSM/WCDMA/CDMA . There is no BSC/RNC in the LTE system.
When an eNB cell is configured as neighbor cells of other eNBs, external cells must be added first,
which is similar to the scenario where inter-BSC/RNC neighbor cells are configured on the BSC. T
hat is, neighbor cells can be configured only after the corresponding cell information is added.

Site A
Neighbor Cell List
(NCL)

A1

A3

Site B
B3

A2

B1

B2

Site A
A1

A3

Source
A
A
A
B
B
B

Target
B1
B2
B3
A1
A2
A3

Site B
A2

B3

B1

B2

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Thank you
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Copyright2011 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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