Planning Areas

PRACH Planning
PCI Planning
UL DM RS Planning
PDCCH Dimensioning
PUCCH Dimensioning

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Nokia Siemens Networks

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PRACH Planning
Principle

PRACH configuration two cells must be different within the PRACH re-use distance to
increase the RACH decoding success rate

PRACH transmission can be separated by:

Time (prachConfIndex)
PRACH-PUSCH interference: If PRACH resources are separated in time within eNB
PRACH-PRACH interference: If same PRACH resources are used for the cells of an
eNodeB.
PRACH-PRACH interference is preferred to PRACH-PUSCH interference so
prachConfIndex of the cells on one site should be the same

Frequency (prachFreqOff)
Allocation of PRACH area should be next to PUCCH area either at upper or lower

border of frequency band, however should not overlap with PUCCH area
Avoid separation of PUSCH in two areas by PRACH (scheduler can only handle one
PUSCH area)
For simplicity use same configuration for all cells

Sequence (PRACH CS and RootSeqIndex)

Use different sequences for all neighbour cells
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Nokia Siemens Networks

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Preamble Formats
3GPP (TS36.211) specifies 4 random access formats for FDD

Difference in formats is based in the different durations for the cyclic prefix,

sequence and guard time which have an effect on the maximum cell radius
Only Formats 0 and 1 are supported in initial releases (up to RL30)
Recommendation:
Select Format0 for cell
ranges <14.53 km
Select Format1 for cell
ranges <77.34 km

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Nokia Siemens Networks

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PRACH Configuration Index

prachConfIndex

Extract of the random access

preamble configurations table (only for
supported preamble formats 0 and 1)

The parameter defines the Allowed

System Frame for random access

attempts, the Sub-frame numbers for
random access attempts and the
Preamble format

Supported values in RL10 up to RL30:

For Preamble Format 0: 3 to 8
For Preamble Format 1: 19 to 24
RACH Density indicates how many

RACH resources are per 10ms frame.

Only RACH density values of 1 and 2
are supported in RL10.E.g.
RACH density=1 Only one random
access attempt per frame
RACH density=2 Two random
access attempts per frame
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Nokia Siemens Networks

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Recommendation:
Configure the same PRACH configuration
Indexes at cells belonging to the same site.
E.g.:
3 or 4 or 5 if RACH density=1 and 6 or 7or 8 if
RACH density=2 (Preamble Format 0)

RACH Density
Based on the expected RACH procedures per second and the maximum
collision probability of the RACH preambles it is possible to estimate the
RACH density as follows:

Recommendation: use PRACH density 1 for

start

Since PRACH performance measurement

counters are available (RL10) it will be possible to

evaluate the amount of PRACH / RACH
procedures in time and adapt /optimize the
settings

Future features: PRACH Management (auto-

configuration, future SON feature called PRACH

optimization (an aspect of this feature is to adjust
the PRACH density to the traffic in the cell)

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Nokia Siemens Networks

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PRACH Frequency Offset

prachFreqOff

Indicates the first PRB available for PRACH in the UL frequency band
PRACH area (6 PRBs) should be next to PUCCH area either at upper or lower

border of frequency band to maximize the PUSCH area but not overlap with
PUCCH area
Parameter is configured based on the PUCCH region (see PUCCH dimensioning)
i.e. its value depends on how many PUCCH resources are available.
If PRACH area is placed at the lower border of UL frequency band then:
PRACH-Frequency Offset= roundup [PUCCH resources/2]

If PRACH area is placed at the upper border of the UL frequency band then:
PRACH-Frequency Offset= NRB -6- roundup [PUCCH resources/2]

NRB: Number of Resource Blocks

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Nokia Siemens Networks

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PRACH Cyclic Shift

PrachCS

PrachCS defines the configuration used for the preamble generation. i.e. how

many cyclic shifts are needed to generate the preamble

PrachCS depends on the cell size
Different cell ranges correspond to different PrachCS
Simplification: To assume all cells have same size (limited by the prachConfIndex)

Recommendation:
Select PrachCS based on the cell
range E.g. if estimated cell range is
15km then PrachCS: 12
If all cells in the network are assumed
to have same cell range them PrachCS
is the same for the whole network

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Nokia Siemens Networks

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PrachCS and rootSeqIndex

PrachCS defines the number of cyclic

shifts (in terms of number of samples) used

to generate multiple preamble
sequences from a single root sequence
Example based on PrachCS=12 -> number
of cyclic shifts: 119
Root sequence length is 839 so a cyclic shift
of 119 samples allows ROUNDDOWN
(839/119)= 7 cyclic shifts before making a
complete rotation (signatures per root
sequence)

64 preambles are transmitted in the PRACH

frame. If one root is not enough to generate
all 64 preambles then more root sequences
are necessary
To ensure having 64 preamble sequences
within the cell it is necessary to have
ROUNDUP (64/7)= 10 root sequences per
cell

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Nokia Siemens Networks

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PRACH Cyclic Shift

rootSeqIndex

RootSeqIndex points to the first root

sequence to be used when generating

the set of 64 preamble sequences.
Each logical rootSeqIndex is
associated with a single physical root
sequence number.
In case more than one root sequence
is necessary the consecutive number
is selected until the full set is
generated
Recommendation:
Use different rootSeqIndex across
neighbouring cells means to ensure neighbour
cells will use different preamble sequences

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Nokia Siemens Networks

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Extract from 3GPP TS 36.211 Table 5.7.2.-4

( Preamble Formats 0-3). Mapping between logical
and physical root sequences.
Logical
root
sequence
number

Physical root sequence index (in increasing order of

the corresponding logical sequence number)

023

129, 710, 140, 699, 120, 719, 210, 629, 168, 671, 84,
755, 105, 734, 93, 746, 70, 769, 60, 779
2, 837, 1, 838

2429

56, 783, 112, 727, 148, 691

3035

80, 759, 42, 797, 40, 799

3641

35, 804, 73, 766, 146, 693

4251

31, 808, 28, 811, 30, 809, 27, 812, 29, 810

5263

24, 815, 48, 791, 68, 771, 74, 765, 178, 661, 136, 703

..

6475

86, 753, 78, 761, 43, 796, 39, 800, 20, 819, 21, 818

810815

309, 530, 265, 574, 233, 606

816819

367, 472, 296, 543

820837

336, 503, 305, 534, 373, 466, 280, 559, 279, 560, 419,
420, 240, 599, 258, 581, 229, 610

PRACH Planning
Wrap Up
Steps:
- Define the prachConfIndex
Depends on preamble format (cell range)
It should be the same for each cell of a site
- Define the prachFreqOff
Depends on the PUCCH region
It can be assumed to be the same for all cells of a network (simplification)
- Define the PrachCS
Depends on the cell range
If for simplicity same cell range is assumed for all network then prachCS is the
same for all cells
- Define the rootSeqIndex
It points to the first root sequence
It needs to be different for neighbour cells
rootSeqIndex separation between cells depends on how many are necessary
per cell (depends on PrachCS)
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Nokia Siemens Networks

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Exercise

Plan the PRACH Parameters for

the sites attached in the excel

Assumptions:
PUCCH resources =6
Cell range = 12km (all cells
have same range)
BW:10MHz

PRACH Config
Exercis e

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PCI Planning
Introduction

There are 504 unique Physical Cell IDs (PCI)

Physical Layer Cell Identity = (3 NID1) + NID2
NID1: Physical Layer Cell Identity group. Range 0 to 167
Defines SSS sequence
NID2: Identity within the group. Range 0 to 2
Defines PSS sequence

PCI impacts the allocation of

resource elements to the
reference signal and the set
of physical channels
Resource element
allocation to the
Reference Signal

Allocation pattern repeats every 6th Physical Layer Cell Identity

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Nokia Siemens Networks

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PCI Planning

Analogous to scrambling code planning in UMTS

Maximum isolation between cells with the same PCI
To ensure that UE never simultaneously receive the same identity from more than a
single cell

Physical Cell Identity is defined by the parameter phyCellID:

Parameter

Object

Range

Default

phyCellId

LNCEL

0 to 503

Not
Applicable

There should be some level of co-ordination across international borders when

allocating PCIs.

This will help to avoid operators allocating the same identity to cells on the same RF
carrier and in neighbouring geographic areas

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Nokia Siemens Networks

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PCI Planning

Recommendations
Id = 0
Id = 2

In priority order, number 1 most important (all

four should be fulfilled, ideally)

Id = 3

1. Avoid assigning the same PCI to

neighbour cells

2. Avoid assigning the same mod3 (PCI)

to neighbour cells

Id = 5

Id = 6
Id = 8

Id = 1

Id = 9

Id =
11
Id = 4

Id =
10

Example 1 PCI Identity Plan

3. Avoid assigning the same mod6(PCI) to

neighbour cells
4. Avoid assigning the same mod30 (PCI) to
neighbour cells

Example 2 PCI Identity Plan

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Id = 7