LTE: Addressing The Challenges

LTE: Addressing the Challenges
Stephen Bowker, CTO, AIRCOM International
James Middleton, Managing Editor, telecoms.com
LTE is being adopted NOW!

Global LTE launch forecasts
140 120 100 80 60 40
20
0 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014+
Informa T&M
The early adopters
Informa T&M
Getting it right
Spectrum
Consolidation
Cost effective rollout
LTE: Addressing the Challenges
Stephen Bowker, CTO, AIRCOM International
James Middleton, Managing Editor, telecoms.com
Addressing the Challenges

Stephen Bowker, CTO AIRCOM International 1 February 2012
6
2012 AIRCOM International Ltd
Introduction to AIRCOM International

AIRCOM is a leading independent provider of end-to-end software products and consulting services designed to plan, manage and optimise mobile networks
Global market leader in mobile Network Planning and Performance Management (PM) solutions
Recognized Industry Expert across all major radio and core technologies including GSM, CDMA,
UMTS, WiMAX and LTE
350+ mobile operator customers in 135+ countries including product and service deployments
with all of the top 20 largest global mobile operators
Software
Core Capabilities
Consulting Services
Core Capabilities
Market Leading Radio Planning Tool - ASSET Highly scalable, flexible Mobile Network Performance Management OPTIMA Integrated RAN/Backhaul Planning and Optimisation/Dimensioning capabilities Multi-Technology / Multi-Vendor tools, already Interfacing to all leading equipment vendors across 2G, 3G and LTE today
Strategy and Technology Planning Network Design and Planning
Spectrum Re-farming Solutions

Vendor Management Roll-out Management Optimisation Services Network operations outsourcing
LTE has arrived and is accelerating fast!

By 31 December 2011, 49 LTE networks had
launched commercially in 29 countries
Status of LTE Ecosystem Report - 20 Jan 2012
Source: GSA GSM mobile Suppliers Association http://www.gsacom.com
By the end of CES 2012, Las Vegas (13 Jan) 269

LTE devices from 57 manufacturers, including 48 smartphones, 18 tablets and numerous data devices had been launched
Operators are already refarming spectrum from

other technologies e.g. 1800MHz for LTE.
LTE networks have implemented interim voice

solutions as networks/devices support CircuitSwitched FallBack or dual radios
In some cases (e.g. KT Korea) 2G services are

being completely shutdown as LTE is being rolled out
LTE Some of the Key Challenges

Biggest delay to rollout of LTE (especially in locations like Western Europe) is
the government releasing, licensing, auctioning of spectrum
Spectrum clearance very important for LTE, plus managing interference to

adjacent bands (such as TV broadcast), GPS/SatNav etc....
New technologies with new software leads to extensive testing requirements,

inter-operability testing and bug resolution
Managing the constant change in the network due to frequent software

upgrades, technology innovations from vendors
High Bandwidth Backhaul is required to all LTE sites e.g. 200Mbps+ for a 3
Sector site, or 1Gb Ethernet. Requires End-to-End mindset
Test equipment is expensive, requires highly skilled engineers. In addition all

L2/L3 messages are not currently available in drive test tools
Advanced Antenna Systems required for higher throughput giving more

complex planning, building and RF safety requirements
9
LTE Strategic Decision Making

LTE Strategy
Business Planning (HSPA+ vs. LTE)
Migration strategies Spectrum Planning Infrastructure Sharing LTE trials evaluation
Plan and Design

Design Objectives Design Basis Model Calibration Radio + Backhaul Design Measurement test processes
10
LTE Field Testing, Trials and Vendor Evaluation
11
Spectrum Re-farming for LTE

Re-farming of existing 850, 900, 1700,
1800, 1900 & 2100 MHz bands for LTE
AIRCOM are already re-farming for our

LTE customers who are deploying in 1800 MHz band
Coverage 2X than at 2.6 GHz Ideal for Single RAN deployment with
GSM 1800MHz widely available in Europe & APAC Little regulatory issues - technology independent band
AIRCOM can help:

The AIQ Solution addresses all of the above issues, with a particular
emphasis for 2012 on spectrum re-farming
Recent projects in Europe, MEA and APAC

12
Example: EGSM Interference in 900MHz Band

UMTS Example Signal from DL ARFCN 1001 is
present on ARFCN 1000
No measurable influence on
ARFCN 999
Impact on a LTE System? 20dB+ SINR is required for

QAM-64 modulation
Entire Resource Block on edge of

LTE limited to QPSK/QAM-16 or disabled
LTE deployed in 5MHz Spectrum

embedded in GSM band could lose 8% capacity
13
Case Study Refarming for LTE 1800

Middle-East Operator (MEA) 1800 MHZ
Re-farming 10 MHz of Spectrum for deployment of LTE

KPIs restore after few days of re-farming conducted Multivendor environment
14
LTE Typical Throughput and Round Trip

First commercial LTE network was
launched in Sweden (Dec 09)
Publically available LTE Throughput Data
Source: http://www.bredbandskollen.se/
The Nordics & Scandinavia are an
interesting area to observe for new mobile technologies with other networks AIRCOM has benchmarked globally
Numbers shown below are consistent Typically 4-6x (under load) current
UMTS/HSPA speeds and less than 50% Round Trip Times
Use 10-80 Mbits/s 4G
Select City or Alla
UL Kbps
DL Kbps RTT(ms) Samples Not Accept
Acceptable
Good
15
LTE Example Drive Test MIMO Impacts

Example drive test comparing throughput
when in MIMO 2x2 Open-Loop Spatial Multiplexing (Rank 1) with Transmit Diversity Mode/No MIMO (Rank 0) Rank 0 = 9395 Kbps Rank 1 =13446 Kbps showing a 43% improvement
Throughput Average (Example)
When closed loop MIMO devices (UEs)
become available we would expect this to improve to ~70% expect a ~60% improvement over 2x2 MIMO
Single-antenna port; port 0 samples # Transmit diversity samples # Open-loop spatial multiplexing samples #
Samples CW0/CW1 QPSK 16QAM 64QAM QPSK 19724 2 1 16QAM 0 11861 0
Introducing 4x4 or 4x2 MIMO we would

1915 12813 37492
64QAM 0 2 6795
16
Radio Access Technology Planning

Inter-Technology Radio Planning requires
tools to support multiple technologies simultaneously in same project Support for Shared Antenna Systems dependent on having 2G/3G coverage coincidental with LTE as: simulated/live traffic capture, neighbour planning, PCI planning and Location Areas in 2G and 3G
Interim Voice Services such as CSFB are
Inter-RAT multi-technology features such
Joint planning of Tracking Areas in LTE Automation, including Live update of
configuration parameters from network keeps planning tools in sync
17
Evolving Configurations = Live Planning

LIVE NETWORK CONFIGURATION DATA FROM VENDOR OMCS ENGINEERING DATA
........
VENDOR-1/OMC-1 VENDOR-2/OMC-2 VENDOR-3/OMC-3 VENDOR-N/OMC-N INVENTORY SITE DATABASE
FULLY AUTOMATED
ENTERPRISE WEB SERVICES (EWS)
READ/COMPARE
LIVE PLAN SERVER
CLIENTS
UPDATE
CREATE
DELETE
18
Carried Traffic Analysis for LTE (CTA)

Integration between ASSET (RF planning tool) and CONNECT (backhaul planning
tool)
Technology evolution => LTE higher network elements are supported (SAEGW, MME) Ability to create the LTE logical interfaces (S1-SAE, S1-MME, X2) Realization of the LTE mesh topology (an eNodeB can belong to more than one SAEGW
or MME)
Inter-technology operation Actual and simulated traffic
from different sources (GSM, UMTS, LTE sites) is created and carried over
Air Interface
Transmission Backhaul
Core Network
19
LTE: Performance Management Challenge

To successfully monitor LTE a PM Tool must:
Reliably load performance data and scale

(data produced per eNodeB)
Load data quickly (minutes latency)

especially during cluster testing
Handle frequent software upgrades

Store multi-vendor, multi-technology PM
data on a single database
Have powerful KPIs and reporting
Drill down/up/across on data to find root

causes to problems
Automatic performance alarms and

threshold crossing alerts
20
SON Introduction Organising or Optimising?

SON Self-Organising Networks SON consists of: Self-Configuration, Self-Optimisation, Self-Healing functions Self-Configuration
Distributed, vendor specific algorithms that automatically configure eNodeB as they are
deployed (Self-Establishment of a new eNodeB)
Includes functions such as software download, self configuration of fundamental functions as

a eNodeB come on-air e.g. Automatic Configuration of LTE physical channels
Self-Optimisation
Automatic Neighbour Relation management Handover parameter and reselection parameter with Mobility Robustness algorithms, and
other functions such as load balancing and control channel power settings
other.
Mobility parameters to optimise coverage and capacity, which are direct trade-off with each
Self-Healing
Focussed around detecting outages, and automating the processed of compensating for those
outages through changes to parameters in the network (plus recovery algorithms)
Requires a centralised SON function rather than base station specific
21
SON Functional Groupings

# 1 Abbr. PCI Scheme Automatic Physical Cell Identity Description Automatically Phy Cell Identity Selection (Collision and Confusion free) Optimises Neighbour List as Plug&Play Feature for optimised HO, also self heals for self or adjacent Cell/Site failure Checks Early/Late/Wrong Cell HO local PM and sets params accordingly Intra-LTE and Inter-RAT load balancing according to instantaneous load per Cell Optimises cell coverage and capacity for RRM-Idle and Active per eNodeB In terms of QCI per cell Co-ordination of radio resource management functions between cells to control inter cell interference Minimises RACH power and other RACH parameters according to Call Attempt Rate Turns off Cell when can offload to other RATs(WiFi, 3GPP Legacy etc and HeNBs)
ANR
Automatic Neighbour Relations
3 4 5
MRO MLB CCO
Mobility Robustness Optimisation (Handover Parameter Optimisation) Mobility Load Balancing Coverage and Capacity Optimisation
6 7 8
ICIC RO ESO
Inter-Cell Interference Coordination RACH Optimisation Energy Saving Optimisation
22
SON Gaining the Trust of Engineering

I-View Framework
SON ENGINE
SON_Engine Algorithms
Vendor SON
Presentation
T0 Data
Network Manager
Global Policy
OMC
SON Engine
Itf-N
Policy Control Policy Perf.

Itf-N
Policy Control Policy Perf.
Vendor SON Algorithm Selection and Tuning
Network Configuration
Vendor SON Monitoring
Network Monitoring
Centralised Vendor 1 SON
OMC
OMC
Centralised Vendor 2 SON
1
23
Distributed Vendor 1 SON
Distributed Vendor 2 SON
Automation Sequence
Summary
Since the first commercial launch on LTE in December 2009, the technology has come
of age with over 50 networks out there today
Real measured throughputs have met expectations even under load, with peak rates
up-to 40-50Mbps and mean around 15-20 Mbps (BW 10Mhz)
Typically 60-70% of all problems associated with LTE rollout are deployment errors
focus on getting the basics right to save a lot of pain
Its essential to plan and monitor across multiple radio access technologies (2G-3GLTE) especially where interim voice services such as Circuit-Switched FallBack (CSFB) are implemented
LTE data rates create additional challenges on backhaul planning, core dimensioning
and test equipment
Self-Organising Networks features are beginning to roll out into LTE networks today
(ANR), careful monitoring, control and co-ordination of algorithms will be key to maintaining quality and optimising OPEX
24
Thank you for attending today

Telecoms.com are hosting another webinar focussed on SON in conjunction with both AIRCOM and Analysys Mason on Wed 15 Feb @ 11am & 4pm GMT Register at Telecoms.com for Calculating the true costs savings of SONs Meet the AIRCOM Team at: Mobile World Congress Barcelona 27 Feb-1 Mar Stand 1A23 CTIA Americas New Orleans 8 -10 May Hall F, Booth No. 5568 Stand 68
LTE World Summit Barcelona 23-24 May
For more information visit our website at: www.aircominternational.com
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LTE: Addressing the Challenges

Stephen Bowker, CTO, AIRCOM International

James Middleton, Managing Editor, telecoms.com

LTE is being adopted NOW!

The early adopters

Cost effective rollout