Propagation Model Calibration -2G (900/1800 Urban & Suburban)

Ranjit Kumar Karna

Purpose and Output

To produce calibrated propagation model for use in Aircom Enterprise Asset 6.2 The Models are for use in Radio Network Planning in GSM 900/1800 MHz. The use of calibrated models provides assurance in the choice of transmitting sites and expected signal coverage and calculation of interference. Four Propagation Models will be produced after Model Tuning Process
 Standard Macrocell type 3, clutter type Suburban, frequency band 1800MHz.  Standard Macrocell type 3, clutter type Urban, frequency band 1800MHz.  Standard Macrocell type 3, clutter type Suburban, frequency band 900MHz.  Standard Macrocell type 3, clutter type Urban, frequency band 900MHz.

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Model Tuning Process

At Ncell, previous Propagation Models were based on the theoretical formulations only. This tuned Prop Model is based on the actual measurement carried out in Urban and Suburban Clutters in Kathmandu. In the fulfillment of the main objectives set out by Ncell RNP&O, MT procedure has undertaken the following tasks:
     
Clutter Analysis, Modal Type Analysis and Modal Sites Selection. Collection of Drive data from modal sites selected by Operator(Ncell)-export to .FMT Drive data conversion into .hd (header) and .dat (measurement). Model calibration Urban & Suburban for 900/1800MHz. Prediction analysis using the new models with the Drive-Test Plot at non-Modal sites. Production of a report to describe the propagation model and processes.

Field Measurements File Processing File Import Filtering Calibration

Aircom Enterprise Accet 6.2,a radio network planning tool, includes advanced survey analysis & processing capabilities, which have been utilized in the development of a generic model from the survey data. The models highlight the dependency of the received signal level on the base station heights, the distance from the base stations, frequency, terrain and the effect of local clutter. Topographical terrain and clutter databases of 5m meters resolution, available at Ncell, have been employed in this process. The clutter database comprises of xx clutter categories. The data processing and model tuning was carried out in Aircom Enterprise Accet 6.2 at Ncell office .

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Clutter and Modal Type Analysis

Clutter Type Analysis:
 Location: Kathmandu (Two Regions Inside Ring Road: Mostly Urban, Outside Ring Road: Mostly Suburban and Villages)  Common Clutter Sub-Types: Urban: Low, Medium & Dense Urban; Suburban: Suburban & Village  Capacity of Local Network: >250 sites  Operational Band: 900, 1800, 2100 MHz  Cell Type: Macrocell

Modal Sites Selection:

Sites selected by Ncell Engineers have been used to develop generic models, which utilize detailed topographical terrain height and clutter database. The sites for the model calibration process were selected with the help of local Ncell Engineers due to their extensive knowledge of the local terrain and morphology. The sites chosen in each morphology were meant to be representative of the antenna heights so as to enable good modeling of antenna height gain. The number of sites selected for each class would ensure that sufficient data points would be collected to calibrate the models.

Modal Type Analysis:  Recommended usage Sites in environments where the distance from the site is greater than approximately 500m Base station antenna heights in the range of 15-200m Receiver heights in the range of 1-10m  Mapping data needed Terrain DTM height raster data Terrain clutter raster data
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Survey Measurement Methodology

Modal Sites Selection:
Sites selected (by Ncell Engineers) have been used to develop generic models, which utilize detailed topographical terrain height and clutter database. The sites for the model calibration process were selected with the help of local Ncell Engineers due to their extensive knowledge of the local terrain and morphology. The sites chosen in each morphology were meant to be representative of the antenna heights so as to enable good modeling of antenna height gain. The number of sites selected for each class would ensure that sufficient data points would be collected to calibrate the models.

Clutter Type
KAT018CZ Suburban KAT089BY KAT002CZ Urban KAT075AX KAT108AX KAT096AX KAT013AX KAT037AX

Cell ID
KAT043AX KAT100BY KAT022AX KAT112CZ KAT064AX KAT194CZ KAT045BY KAT118AX,CZ KAT083CZ KAT210CZ KAT065AX KAT122AX

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Survey Measurement Methodology

Selected Sites Location : Suburban and Urban

Suburban Urban

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Survey Measurement Methodology

Route Selection

 After all the sites were selected, survey(DT) routes for each cell were identified. The measurement routes
were selected to provide a mixture of main roads and side roads tangential and arbitrary orientation with respect to the selected cell and the particular antenna configuration of each sector.

 Although all drive-test routes were pre-defined for a maximum radius of about 3-4 km, drive-test teams
were instructed to continue driving further away from the site if signal strength had not fallen below level of -110dBm. This was done to ensure that the propagation model can accurately predict far-field pathloss. Transmitter Configuration

 Normally, for model tuning, a low gain omni-directional antenna is used, but in our case we were using
sectorized antenna Andrew DBXLH-6565B-VTM. Mechanical and electrical tilts were set to 0 in order to extend coverage area and to decrease impact of the tilt evaluation. After drive-tests they were set to initial positions.

Recommendations: During drive-test, (1) BCCH of testing cells was set out of common list in order to prevent the impact of interference from
other cells.

(2) Disable Hopping( BBH/SFH) (3) Disable Power Control

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Survey Measurement Methodology

Survey Data Conversion, Filtering and Processing

 Drive-Test/Survey Data Export to (.FMT): Open the export (.FMT) in excel which has Time, MS, Frame
Number, Location (Longitude/Latitude) and RxLevel.

Remove RSS less than -110 and higher than -40dBm from Excel Now Keep only three columns in excel as Longitude, Latitude and RxLevel Modify the excel as: Add first RxLevel by string start in 1st Row and similar for last row with finish . Save this file in Notepad with extension as (.dat) as measurement file. Then do it for all (.fmt) exports for each cell. Remember: only one (.FMT) per cell. Create header files (.hd ) including (.dat) file names and according to site database within it for each cell as attached. Now we have two files (.dat & .hd) for each cell. Load them into Asset (measurement files) and better to Associate them.

Example_KAT018 C.dat

Example_KAT018 C.hd

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Survey Measurement Methodology

 Filtering due to Signal Strength: All samples with RSS less than -110dBm should not be considered during
calculation, while they are affected by noise, readings with RSS higher than -40dBm should be removed due to saturation as well.

The measurements should exactly match the map data, including clutter and road vectors. To avoid successive readings from same location (or at locations that are not further away), the
measurements should be re-sampled using averaging distance 1m.

 Filtering to Adjust to Digital Map: During the model calibration process two types of an assessment the
model accuracy were used numerical, based on errors between measured and predicted values and visual comparison of overlapping layers of the coverage and drive-test data.

In order to ease visual assessment, the same legend of signal strength will be used for coverage
prediction and measurements. Such limits are used to consider only sufficient readings.

The legend used as

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Survey Measurement Methodology

 Filtering to Adjust to Digital Map: contd..
Survey/Recorded Data Map with Map Data:

Before

After

The layer with recorded CW data is not matching with map data. The significant errors of the prediction will occur in this case. So, in order to fit survey data to map, the coordinates of each sample were adjusted Longitude + 0.0001 (DLL); Latitude + 0.00003 (DLL).

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Survey Measurement Methodology

 Survey Data Filtering - Distance Evaluation In order to avoid the saturation of signal, all CW
measurements near the site should be cancelled from the tuning process. Following figures show distribution/regression of the samples against distance from site for each model separately.

Sub Urban 1800

Sub Urban 900

Urban 1800

Urban 900

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Survey Measurement Methodology

 Survey Data Filtering Loading into Tool and Averaging :
In order to get an accurate prediction the data headers of log-files should be prepared in correct way, so our readings will be associated with the existing site database. Below is the measurement loading to Aircom Asset ( Suburban, 1800 MHz), so as other models can be done.

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Survey Measurement Methodology

 Survey Data Filtering Loading into Tool and Averaging :
Now it is needed to average the recorded samples for exclusion unnecessary point. It could be done in the tool. Measurements averaging into Aircom Asset (1m).

Filtered out, averaged and map-adjusted data have been successfully loaded into Aircom Asset. Now drivetest/survey data is ready to be used in the calibration process.

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Calibration Process
 Path Loss Definition and Objectives
Path Loss Formula PL (dB) = K1 + K2*log(d) + K3(Hms) + K4*log(Hms) + K5*log(Heff) + + K6*log(Heff) *log(d) + k7(diff) + Clutter_loss
          
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D - Distance from the base station to the mobile station (km). Hms - Height of the mobile station above ground (m). This figure may be specified either globally or for individual clutter categories. Heff - Effective base station antenna height (m). Diff - Diffraction loss calculated using either the Epstein-Peterson, Bullington, Deygout or Japanese Atlas knife edge techniques. K1 and K2 - Intercept and Slope. These factors correspond to a constant offset (in dB) and a multiplying factor for the log of the distance between the base station and mobile. K3 - Mobile Antenna Height Factor. Correction factor used to take into account the effective mobile antenna height. K4 - Multiplying factor for Hms. K5 - Effective Antenna Height Gain. This is the multiplying factor for the log of the effective antenna height. K6 - Multiplying factor for log(Heff)log(d). K7 - Multiplying factor for diffraction loss calculation. Clutter_loss - Clutter specifications taken into account in the calculation process.
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Calibration Process
 Initial (default) parameters for Standard Macrocell Model (type 3): Non-calibrated model
Parameter definition
Mobile Rx height, m Earth radius, km Effective antenna height algorithm Diffraction loss algorithm K1 K2 K1 near K2 near Near distance K3 K4 K5 K6 K7

Value (900MHz/1800MHz)
1.5 8493 Relative Epstein-Peterson 150.9/160.9 44.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 -2.55/-2.88 0.0 -13.82 -6.55 0.7/0.8

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Calibration Process
 Prediction with Initial Default Parameters: Prediction with initial default parameters is done against cellid for four models and clutter types to see the errors in prediction of Std. Deviation and Correlation coefficient. CELL ID # bins Mean Error RMS Error STD Error Corr. coef.
KAT002Z KAT013X KAT022X KAT045Y KAT065X KAT075X KAT108X KAT112Z KAT118X KAT118Z KAT122X TOTAL
Clutter Type OPEN SEMIOPEN_AREA PARKS VILLAGES INDUSTRIAL_ZONES SUBURBAN LOW_URBAN MEDIUM_URBAN DENSE_URBAN

3164 2162 3477 2546 2620 2973 2201 2469 3916 2468 3122 31118
# bins

-4.5 -3.2 -6.7 -1.5 -5.0 -14.7 2.8 -5.7 3.4 -7.6 -5.5 -4.4
Mean Error

15.3 7.6 12.4 6.7 13.1 17.8 11.8 8.8 7.1 9.7 8.9 11.5
RMS Error

14.6 6.8 10.5 6.5 12.1 10.1 11.4 6.7 6.2 6.0 7.1 10.6
STD Error

-0.0231 0.5288 0.5432 0.6006 0.2995 0.5685 0.5521 0.7576 0.5980 0.7139 0.6481 0.4257
Corr. coef.

7751 33 54 121 459 2229 197 3065 17209

-9.1 -15.5 -13.6 -3.2 -4.7 -2.7 -3.4 -3.9 -2.5

14.4 21.6 17.1 6.3 10.2 9.7 8.6 10.7 10.3

11.2 15.3 10.4 5.4 9.0 9.3 7.9 10.0 10.0

0.3930 0.3526 0.5857 -0.3098 0.2371 0.5376 0.1648 0.5114 0.4606

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Calibration Process
 Tuning of the model: The calibration process consists of steps as: Iterative estimation of K1, K2, K7, clutter
offsets, height and separation and final analysis of models performance. For instance, these steps will be done for model urban 1800MHz. The rest of models will be calibrated in same way.

Tuning of K1 The purpose of tuning K1 is to reach the lowest RMS. Few iterations have been done to
get this value. Before this Non-LOS measurements were deactivated to avoid impact of diffraction losses. The optimum value of K1 at this stage is 158.1. With this value we have following results of error evaluation. Errors in clutter type will not be considered at this step. Tuning of K2 Likely to K1 during tuning K2 the lowest RMS error will be found. Before this Non-LOS measurements were deactivated to avoid impact of diffraction loss. The optimum value of K2 at this stage is 54.0. With this value we have following results of error evaluation. Errors in clutter type will not be considered at this step. Tuning of K7 Likely to K1 and K2 during tuning K7 the lowest RMS error will be found. Before this LOS measurements were deactivated and NLOS were activated. This was done, because K7 (diffraction loss coefficient) must be tuned only for measurements, recorded at non-LOS areas. The optimum value of K7 at this stage is 0.35. With this value we have following results of error evaluation. At this stage, final values for K2 and K7 were found. K1 will require further fine-tuning following the influence of the clutter type tuning.

Errors in prediction against Cell-ID with K1=158.1, K2=54.0, K7=0.35 is calculated for each model. Errors in prediction against Clutter Type with K1=158.1, K2=54.0, K7=0.35 is calculated for each clutter.

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Calibration Process
 Tuning of clutter offsets Different clutter types produce different errors level. So, now its mandatory to find
optimum value of clutter offsets in order to have minimum errors for each of them. In this case, impact of clutter penetration will be taken into account, so the accuracy of prediction will be improved. For semi_open area and parks the number of bins is too low (less than 100), so tuning of clutter offsets for them is not possible. They will be kept as 0 at this stage. The majority of bins are about urban areas and open as well. We have so much measurements in open area, because the driven roads belongs to this type. Anyway, first stage of clutter offsets tuning is normalization its values to open type only. So all other clutters were deactivated and following table is produced. Errors in prediction against cell id and clutter type with K1=158.1, K2=54.0, K7=0.35 (open area only)
CELL ID # bins Mean Error RMS Error STD Error Corr. coef.

KAT002Z KAT013X KAT022X KAT045Y KAT065X KAT075X KAT108X KAT112Z KAT118X KAT118Z KAT122X TOTAL
Clutter Type

1063 389 1497 518 873 766 263 292 408 457 1225 7751
# bins

-3.4 1.2 -1.2 -0.9 -4.4 -10.9 0.3 -0.5 6.3 -7.3 -2.0 -2.7
Mean Error

14.4 5.5 10.2 5.4 8.7 13.5 9.0 7.0 8.5 9.5 6.0 9.9
RMS Error

14.0 5.3 10.2 5.4 7.5 7.9 9.0 7.0 5.6 6.1 5.6 9.5
STD Error

0.0805 0.4575 0.5499 0.7051 0.7009 0.4266 0.8367 0.6420 0.7607 0.5708 0.7536 0.4889
Corr. coef.

OPEN
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7751

-2.7

9.9

9.5

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Calibration Process
 Tuning of clutter offsets (contd..)
Overall mean error of the model now must be substracted from value of K1 in order to get it normalised to the open clutter type. Errors in prediction against Cell-ID and Clutter Type with K1=155.4, K2=54.0, K7=0.35 (open area only) According to new value of K1=155.4 models performance must be assessed once again, taking into account all clutter types.

 In order to involve clutter influence on propagation loss, the mean errors of every clutter type should be
considered via clutter offset. For this, it is required to substract overall mean error specified from the table for each clutter class. In next performance assessment involving clutter influence, Errors in prediction against Cell-ID and Clutter Type with K1=150.9, K2=54.0, K7=0.35

 At the next stage its required to substract every clutter types error from zero and define it as a clutter
offset. With such set of values for clutter offset model performance indicators are following.
Clutter Type
OPEN SEMIOPEN_AREA PARKS VILLAGES INDUSTRIAL_ZONES SUBURBAN LOW_URBAN MEDIUM_URBAN DENSE_URBAN

# bins 7751 33 54 121 459 2229 197 3065 17209

Mean Error -0.0 -0.0 -0.0 0.0 -0.0 0.0 -0.0 0.0 0.0

RMS Error 9.5 8.0 8.2 4.4 6.8 9.2 6.5 7.2 8.5

STD Error 9.5 5.6 8.3 4.4 6.8 9.2 6.5 7.2 8.5

Corr. coef. 0.4887 0.4986 0.7770 -0.2765 0.5366 0.4945 0.2931 0.6858 0.5998

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Calibration Process
 Tuning of clutter height and separation distance
The influence of clutter heights and separation distance will further enhance the prediction accuracy and decrease the level of error. Aircom Asset performs a diffraction loss calculation over the edge of clutter and therefore requires the clutter height and the distance between the edge of the clutter and mobile end point. With starting values of clutter heights (like dense_urban = 30m, medium_urban = 20m, low_urban = 10m etc.) model
shows totally different results in compare with the model without clutter height consideration. The point is to find optimum values of height of each clutter type, keeping overal error value as low as possible. Same procedure was accomplished for separation distance calibration. As a result of this stage, following table was achieved. These values are same for all types of model, because they define common clutter settings.
Clutter Type
OPEN SEMIOPEN_AREA PARKS SPARSE_FOREST DENSE_FOREST VILLAGES INDUSTRIAL_ZON ES SUBURBAN LOW_URBAN MEDIUM_URBAN DENSE_URBAN

Clutter height, m

Separation distance, m

0.0 0.0 20.0 10.0 20.0 9.0 10.0 10.0 13.0 15.0 20.0

0.0 0.0 20.0 30.0 30.0 10.0 10.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 20.0

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Calibration Process
 Clutter Offset Assessment with Clutter Height & Separation Distance Consideration:
Mean error of each clutter type is non-zero again as well as overall error now. The reason is implementation of clutter height and separation distance. So, its required to substract every clutter types error from zero and define it as a clutter offset once again. Same action should be done with the K1 in order to achieve overall mean error equals to 0. So K1 will be 145.00. (Below table for urban 1800MHz)
Parameter definition K1 K2 K1 near K2 near Near distance K3 K4 K5 K6 K7 Clutter type OPEN SEMIOPEN_AREA DENSE_FOREST VILLAGES INDUSTRIAL_ZONES SUBURBAN LOW_URBAN MEDIUM_URBAN DENSE_URBAN Value 145.0 54.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 -2.88 0.0 -13.82 -6.55 0.35 Offset Value 1.4 1.7 3.0 0.6 4.3 1.7 -0.05 3.8 7.6

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Calibration Process
 Assessment of Model Performance Indicators after Clutter Offset Calibration
Errors in prediction against Cell-ID with K1=145.00, K2=54.0, K7=0.35, clutter settings on.
CELL ID KAT002Z KAT013X KAT022X KAT045Y KAT065X KAT075X KAT108X KAT112Z KAT118X KAT118Z KAT122X TOTAL # bins 3164 2162 3477 2546 2620 2973 2201 2469 3916 2468 3122 31118 Mean Error 0.5 0.5 2.1 0.2 -5.2 0.7 4.6 -4.8 -1.1 0.5 0.5 -0.0 RMS Error 6.1 9.5 5.8 8.6 8.5 6.1 7.3 8.1 6.2 6.1 9.5 7.6 STD Error 6.1 9.5 5.4 8.6 6.7 6.1 5.7 6.5 6.1 6.1 9.5 7.6 Corr. coeff. 0.6467 0.6233 0.7438 0.5242 0.7295 0.7842 0.7035 0.6889 0.7504 0.6467 0.6233 0.6382

Errors in prediction against Clutter Types with K1=145.00, K2=54.0, K7=0.35, clutter settings on
Clutter Type
OPEN SEMIOPEN_AREA PARKS VILLAGES INDUSTRIAL_ZONES SUBURBAN LOW_URBAN MEDIUM_URBAN DENSE_URBAN

# bins 7751 33 54 121 459 2229 197 3065 17209

Mean Error -0.0 -0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 -0.0 -0.0 -0.0 0.0

RMS Error 8.6 7.7 8.1 4.4 7.2 7.2 6.5 6.3 7.4

STD Error 8.6 5.7 8.2 4.4 7.2 7.1 6.5 6.3 7.4

Corr. coeff. 0.5370 0.5037 0.7414 -0.2765 0.5067 0.5747 0.2949 0.7474 0.6487

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Calibration Process
 Assessment of Model Performance and Calibrated Model Parameters
Its important to perform the visual comparison in planning tool like Assest. For this, a cell is selected, additional verification drive-test was conducted too as shown below: (Urban 1800)-KAT089Y prediction against real drive-test presentation
Parameter definition K1 K2 K1 near K2 near Near distance K3 K4 K5 K6 K7 Clutter type OPEN SEMIOPEN_AREA DENSE_FOREST VILLAGES INDUSTRIAL_ZONES SUBURBAN LOW_URBAN MEDIUM_URBAN DENSE_URBAN Value 145.0 54.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 -2.88 0.0 -13.82 -6.55 0.35 Offset 1.4 1.7 3.0 0.6 4.3 1.7 -0.05 3.8 7.6

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Calibration Process
 Assessment of Model Performance and Calibrated Model Parameters
(Sub Urban 1800MHz)-KAT089Y prediction against real drive-test presentation
Parameter definition K1 K2 K1 near K2 near Near distance K3 K4 K5 K6 K7 Clutter type OPEN SEMIOPEN_AREA PARKS SPARSE_FOREST DENSE_FOREST VILLAGES INDUSTRIAL_ZONES SUBURBAN LOW_URBAN MEDIUM_URBAN DENSE_URBAN Value 143.2 48.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 -2.88 0.0 -13.82 -6.55 0.35 Offset 2.6 5.1 -9.4 3 -2.6 2.8 1.4 3.9 7.3 0.7 5.6

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Calibration Process
 Assessment of Model Performance and Calibrated Model Parameters
(Urban 900MHz)- KAT107A prediction against real drive-test presentation

Parameter definition K1 K2 K1 near K2 near Near distance K3 K4 K5 K6 K7 Clutter type OPEN SEMIOPEN_AREA PARKS VILLAGES INDUSTRIAL_ZONES SUBURBAN LOW_URBAN MEDIUM_URBAN DENSE_URBAN

Value 147.7 48.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 -2.55 0.0 -13.82 -6.55 0.25 Offset 1.0 -3.4 3.5 -4.2 7.4 0.3 1.0 2.9 7.2

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Calibration Process
 Assessment of Model Performance and Calibrated Model Parameters
(Sub Urban 900MHz)-KAT223B prediction against real drive-test presentation

Parameter definition K1 K2 K1 near K2 near Near distance K3 K4 K5 K6 K7 Clutter type OPEN SEMIOPEN_AREA PARKS VILLAGES INDUSTRIAL_ZONES SUBURBAN LOW_URBAN MEDIUM_URBAN DENSE_URBAN

Value 147.7 48.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 -2.55 0.0 -13.82 -6.55 0.25 Offset 1.0 -3.4 3.5 -4.2 7.4 0.3 1.0 2.9 7.2

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Conclusion
4 Prediction Models- 2 for GSM and 2 for DCS in Urban and Sub-Urban produced

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