WhatsNew_Ent8.0

What’s New in the ENTERPRISE Suite?

Quick Reference Guide

Software Version 8.0

Reference Guide Edition 1

© Copyright 2012 AIRCOM International All rights reserved

ADVANTAGE, ARRAYWIZARD, ASSET, CONNECT, DATASAFE, DIRECT, ENTERPRISE, MYRIAD, AIRCOM OPTIMA, RANOPT and WEBWIZARD are recognised trademarks of AIRCOM International. Other product names are trademarks of their respective companies.

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An electronic version of this document exists.

This User Reference Guide finalised on 17 January 2012.

Refer to the Online Help for more information.

This User Reference Guide prepared by:

AIRCOM International Ltd Cassini Court Randalls Research Park Randalls Way Leatherhead Surrey KT22 7TW

Telephone: +44 (0) 1932 442000 Support Hotline: +44 (0) 1932 442345 Fax: +44 (0) 1932 442005 Web: www.aircominternational.com

Change History

This table shows the change history of this guide:

Edition Date Reason

1 17 January 2012 Commercial Release

Explanation of Symbols

Throughout this guide, where appropriate, some symbols are used to highlight particular pieces of text. Three different symbols are in use, and are explained as follows:

Symbol Brief Description Full Description

Note Signifies text that should be noted or carefully considered.

Tip Signifies text that may help you do something in an easier or quicker

way.

Warning or Important Signifies text that is intended as a warning or something important.

What's New in the ENTERPRISE Suite 8.0? Page 7 Contents

Contents

Chapter 1 About this Guide 9

Chapter 2 What's New in ENTERPRISE 8.0? 11

XML Schema Validation 11

Selection Expert Enhancements 12

Group Level Apply (Sandboxing) in ENTERPRISE 15

Using WMS Client 18

Map View Enhancements 18

KML Export 19

Export Geo-Transform Raster Outputs 20

Multi-Coordinate System Location Data 21

Chapter 3 What's New in ENTERPRISE Administrator 8.0? 23

Group Level Apply (Sandboxing) in Administrator 23

Licensing Reservation Tool 24

Chapter 4 What's New in ADVANTAGE 8.0? 25

Antenna Constraints in Site Database 25

Chapter 5 What's New in ARRAYWIZARD 8.0? 27

Interference Analysis Support 27

LTE Support 27

SOA Support 28

Chapter 6 What's New in ASSET 8.0? 29

Improved Antenna Management 29

Antenna Management in the Cellular Antennas Dialog Box 29 Antennas in the Site Database and Global Editor 32 Exporting Antennas Using XML Export 33

Information about Simulated Terminals 34

Map View Enhancements for Displaying Neighbours 35

Model Assignment Calculator Enhancement 38

Neighbour Planning Wizard based on Handover Events 39

Neighbour Planning Wizard based on Traffic 41

Neighbour Planning Wizards using Background Thread 41

Neighbour-related Conflict Warnings in Neighbour Analysis 41

Page 8 What's New in the ENTERPRISE Suite 8.0? Contents

Prediction Radius Calculator Enhancements 42

Restricting Coverage and Simulation Arrays to Vectors 44

Site Database - Customisable Object Count 45

CDMA2000 and EV-DO - Enhanced PN Code Planner 46

GSM - Optional Network Hierarchy and Support for Logical Connections 47

GSM - Writing Interference Table Traffic to Sub-cells 49

GSM and UMTS - LAC and RAC Assignment Planner 49

GSM and UMTS - Location Based Services Planner 51

GSM and UMTS - Polygon Assignment Planner 52

LTE - Line Of Sight Array and Improved MIMO Modelling 54

LTE - Scheduled Users Limit added to Simulator 55

LTE - Support for MME and SAEGW Network Elements 56

Planning Wizards - Copying Data to Clipboard 57

Chapter 7 What's New in CONNECT 8.0? 59

Automatic Frequency and Capacity Planning 59

Enhanced Carried Traffic Analysis 63

Chapter 8 Help Us Help You 67

What's New in the ENTERPRISE Suite 8.0? Page 9 About this Guide

About this Guide

For existing users of ENTERPRISE, the What’s New Quick Reference Guide gives a brief overview of what has changed in the latest version.

However, if you are new to ENTERPRISE, you may find it more useful to refer to:

The ENTERPRISE User Reference Guide, which provides information about common functionality across the tool suite

The specific User Reference Guide for each of the products (such as ASSET or CONNECT) that you will be using

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Page 10 What's New in the ENTERPRISE Suite 8.0? About this Guide

What's New in the ENTERPRISE Suite 8.0? Page 11 What's New in ENTERPRISE 8.0?

What's New in ENTERPRISE 8.0?

In ENTERPRISE 8.0, the following additional features are now available.

XML Schema Validation

When importing or exporting XML data files, you now have the option to Enable XML Schema Validation:

Enabling XML Schema Validation

If you select this option, ENTERPRISE will check the XML file against the structure, syntax and restrictions defined in the XSD file for the corresponding object type.

Typical checks include string lengths, enumerated values and positive/negative values, and object types that fail these checks will not be imported or exported.

This ensures that only correct and reliable data is transferred into and out of ENTERPRISE.

This validation is also performed automatically when creating new XML data files in the XML Data Editor.

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Page 12 What's New in the ENTERPRISE Suite 8.0?What's New in ENTERPRISE 8.0?

Selection Expert EnhancementsThere are now a number of new ways to add items to a Selection filter:

Using an existing polygon vector

Using the element hierarchy

Using the Existing Polygon Vector

On the Location tab of the Selection Expert, you can add network elements that liewithin a particular polygon to a Selection filter.

In the Select Polygon Vector(s) dialog box, you can select one or more polygon vectorswhich contain elements that you want to add:

Select Polygon Vector(s) dialog box

If you have classified your vectors, you can filter these according to their vector class:

Filtering polygon vectors by their the vector class

You can then add all of these elements to the Selection filter by clicking the Add AllElements button in the Selection Expert:

Adding elements from selected polygon vectors

What's New in the ENTERPRISE Suite 8.0? Page 13What's New in ENTERPRISE 8.0?

Using the Element Hierarchy

If your Selection filter already contains network elements, on the Hierarchy tab of theSelection Expert, you can add other, related network elements.

You can add:

The logical/physical parent(s) of one or more selected elements.

In this example, the parent Property of SITE11 will be added:

The logical/physical child (or children) of one or more selected elements.

In this example, the child GSM cells of SITE11 will be added:


The neighbours (inward, outward, mutual) of one or more elected networkelements.

In this example, the GSM neighbours of SITE11A will be added:


Group Level Apply (Sandboxing) in ENTERPRISE

A Sandbox is an optional environment within ENTERPRISE in which users can experiment with network changes and can see each other's applied changes without having to commit them and without making them visible to other users.

If you have logged in to ENTERPRISE as a Sandbox user, you can choose whether changes you make are seen:

Only by you and other users of this Sandbox (using Apply)

– or –

By all other users (using Commit)

This means that you can test out your changes among your Sandbox users before you make them available to everyone else.

In summary, Apply and Commit both store data in the database, but Applied changes are only visible to the Sandbox users whereas Commit makes that data visible to all users.

To use a Sandbox you must have been made a member of a Sandbox by your system administrator. If you choose to log in to a sandbox and your administrator has given you access to more than one, you can select the required Sandbox from a drop-down list of those available:

Page 16 What's New in the ENTERPRISE Suite 8.0? What's New in ENTERPRISE 8.0?

Having logged in to a Sandbox, the Apply, Commit, Restore, Commit All, Restore All and Global Edit buttons in the Site Database, Link Database and Logical/Cellular Connection Database windows behave differently from normal as follows:

Click To

Apply Apply a change you have made to the sandbox account. The change can only be seen by yourself and the other users of this Sandbox.

Commit Copy your change to the database and therefore make it available to everyone, whether they are users of this Sandbox or not.

Before using Commit, you need to have clicked Apply.

To use Commit, you must have been granted the Sandbox Commit/Restore functional privilege by your administrator.

Restore Remove a change that you have Applied to the Sandbox and revert to using the master database settings, getting the latest Committed version of that object.

Restore only works if there is a version of the object already Committed to the database. If you have created a new object and want to remove it, you should delete it.

To use Restore, you must have been granted the Sandbox Commit/Restore functional privilege by your administrator.

Commit All Copy all your Sandbox changes to the database in one action, and therefore make them available to everyone. Before using Commit All, you need to have clicked Apply for each change you made.

If there is nothing to Commit when you click Commit All, a dialog box will appear telling you that there is nothing left to Commit.

Restore All Delete all changes that you have Applied to the Sandbox and revert to using the master database settings, getting the latest Committed version of the items marked with an asterisk.

If there is nothing to Restore when you click Restore All, a dialog box will appear telling you that there is nothing left to Restore.

Global Edit Open the Global Editor, for when you want to change all network elements identified by a filter.


If another Sandbox user has already clicked Apply after making a change to the same object that you are changing, you are prompted to decide what to do with that user's change:


Using WMS Client

You can now show Web Map Service (WMS) images in the Map View window.

Like WFS Services, WMS Services are configured in ENTERPRISE Administrator:

Map View Enhancements

A number of enhancements have been made to the usability of the Map View:

A Distance toolbox has been added to the Map View toolbar. This contains four buttons as follows:

This Button Enables You To

Measure the distances between points on a line, and the total length of the line.

Show the coordinates of a point.

Measure the size of an area.

Change the display properties of the above tools.

To preserve the information displayed by these tools, you can do so by saving it as a vector. The labels of vector file features can retain these metrics.

What's New in the ENTERPRISE Suite 8.0? Page 19What's New in ENTERPRISE 8.0?

A tracking cursor has been added to the Map View toolbar:

ThisButton

Enables You To

Turn cross hairs on and off. The tracking cursor displays the coordinates at the cursor cross hairs.

You can use the tracking cursor with the Map Grid, the Pixel Analyser, when adding or moving properties ornetwork elements and when moving or reorientating an antenna.

You can now display a scale bar in the map view window:

KML ExportYou can now export Polygons/Rectangles and Symbol Points to the KML/KMZ fileformat for use with Google Earth. You do this by making the appropriate selections inthe GIS Export dialog box:


Export Geo-Transform Raster OutputsIf you are exporting:

an Image and you have chosen to include a TAB file

Polygons/Rectangles and you have selected TAB/DAT

Symbol points and you have selected TAB/DAT

You can now change the EPSG (European Petroleum Survey Group) code bytyping a different one or by clicking the Find button. To revert to the EPSG codespecified in the Project Settings dialog box, you can click the Reset button.

The current projection is shown below the EPSG Code field:


Multi-Coordinate System Location Data

The Geopatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) now replaces Geocalc for the purposes of:

Selecting a coordinate system

Performing projections between coordinate systems

This is reflected on Coord System tab of the Modify Project dialog box in ENTERPRISE:

You will also need to enter the correct EPSG code when populating the Support schema in ENTERPRISE Administrator after creating a new ENTERPRISE database.


What's New in the ENTERPRISE Suite 8.0? Page 23 What's New in ENTERPRISE Administrator 8.0?

What's New in ENTERPRISE Administrator 8.0?

In ENTERPRISE Administrator 8.0, the following additional features are now available.

Group Level Apply (Sandboxing) in Administrator

A new user type known as a Sandbox user has been introduced.

A Sandbox is an optional environment within ENTERPRISE in which Sandbox users can experiment with network changes and can see each other's applied changes without having to commit them and without making them visible to other users. If you add a Sandbox in ENTERPRISE Administrator, then users who you designate as Sandbox users (by adding them to the Sandbox Users group) will have the option to log in to the Sandbox environment in ENTERPRISE where they will have Sandbox Apply and Commit options.

A Sandbox apply will make changes visible to the other users of the Sandbox. A Sandbox commit will make changes visible to all users. You can set up multiple Sandboxes with different users in each.

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Page 24 What's New in the ENTERPRISE Suite 8.0? What's New in ENTERPRISE Administrator 8.0?

To access the Add Sandbox function, in Administrator, select the new Sandboxes in the left pane:

Licensing Reservation Tool

If you are using network licences you may wish to prevent specified users from accessing particular licences. You can now do this by adding a user to a reservation file which is held on the server and which controls group access to licences. By adding a user to an excluded group, you can prevent access to a specified licence. To generate the required reservation file you can use a utility called Wlsgrmgr:

What's New in the ENTERPRISE Suite 8.0? Page 25 What's New in ADVANTAGE 8.0?

What's New in ADVANTAGE 8.0?

In ADVANTAGE 8.0, the following additional features are now available.

Antenna Constraints in Site Database

ADVANTAGE 8.0 provides a new group of antenna constraints that you can set in the Site Database.

You can now activate and set the following constraints per antenna slot, if you want to enable such changes during optimisation:

Total Downtilt - Min; Max

Electrical Downtilt - Min; Max; Step

Mechanical Downtilt - Min; Max; Step

So, for example, setting values for 'Electrical Downtilt' means that the Optimiser will consider changes to the electrical tilt, within the defined range, for that antenna slot.

These parameters are already available in the (plan-specific) Action-Constraints dialog box, but the option to set them for your network provides more flexibility, as well as consistency with other parameters.

This picture shows the new parameters:

Example of the new constraints on the Antenna Constraints tab in the Site Database

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Page 26 What's New in the ENTERPRISE Suite 8.0? What's New in ADVANTAGE 8.0?

The Antenna Constraints tab appears at the cell level for GSM, and at the site/node level for all other technologies.

The 'Total Downtilt - Max' parameter replaces the 'Constrain Max Main Lobe Tilt' that existed in older versions.

What's New in the ENTERPRISE Suite 8.0? Page 27 What's New in ARRAYWIZARD 8.0?

What's New in ARRAYWIZARD 8.0?

In ARRAYWIZARD 8.0, the following additional features are now available.

Interference Analysis Support

You can now create Interference Analysis parameter sets to be run by ARRAYWIZARD:

LTE Support

You can now create LTE Analysis parameter sets to be run by ARRAYWIZARD:

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terry.walker

Rectangle

Page 28 What's New in the ENTERPRISE Suite 8.0? What's New in ARRAYWIZARD 8.0?

SOA Support

The ARRAYWIZARD Scheduler now runs as a Windows service called ARRAYWIZARD_Scheduler_Service_8.0 which starts automatically once ARRAYWIZARD has been installed. The ENTERPRISE Super User can:

View the scheduler log

Add and drop user schemas to and from the database to which ARRAYWIZARD is connected

Stop and start the scheduler

Change the password for the Scheduler internal account

Specify a user account against which to run a post parameter set processing executable or a batch file

What's New in the ENTERPRISE Suite 8.0? Page 29 What's New in ASSET 8.0?

What's New in ASSET 8.0?

ASSET 8.0, the following additional features are now available.

Improved Antenna Management

ASSET 8.0 provides some powerful functionality to help you manage your antennas. The following areas have been improved:

Cellular Antennas dialog box

Site Database

Global Editor

XML Export

The following topics provide information about each of these areas.

Antenna Management in the Cellular Antennas Dialog Box

ASSET 8.0 provides some powerful new functionality in the Cellular Antennas dialog box to help you manage your antennas:

The Tree tab now contains a Filter drop-down box that enables you to view only the antennas that exist in your chosen filter (appropriate to filters that are based on antenna objects):

In addition, the Tree tab has added options. You can now:

Add a device or pattern to the Selection Filter

Add a device or pattern to the list in the Advanced Search tab

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Page 30 What's New in the ENTERPRISE Suite 8.0? What's New in ASSET 8.0?

The Advanced Search tab has added options. You can now:

Add a device or pattern to the Selection Filter

Remove the antenna device (with all its patterns), or an individual pattern, from the Search results

Include all patterns for the selected device or all currently listed devices in the Search results

Cut and paste a pattern onto a different device

Delete an individual item from the database

Find all antenna devices that do not contain any antenna patterns

Perform a database removal of all the devices currently listed in the Search Results


Use the Group Antennas by Device dialog box for a flexible way of grouping together selected patterns under a particular antenna device:

On both tabs, there is an additional set of display options:

Show All Devices: All antenna devices, irrespective of their usage in the Site Database.

Show only Used Devices: Only antenna devices that have at least one pattern in use in the Site Database.

Show only Unused Devices: Only antenna devices that have none of their patterns in use in the Site Database.

For detailed information on the Cellular Antennas dialog box, see the 'Storing Antennas and Equipment' chapter in the ENTERPRISE User Reference Guide.


Antennas in the Site Database and Global Editor

ASSET 8.0 provides new ways of editing electrical tilts in the Site Database and Global Editor:

Site Database:

There is a new Electrical Tilt drop-down box on the Antennas tab in the Site Database.

This enables you to easily select a different electrical tilt (from those available on the device). The corresponding pattern is then automatically selected.

The antenna configurations for Repeaters also now have this same editing functionality.

Global Editor:

When you want to assign different patterns/electrical tilts (of the currently assigned antenna device) using the Global Editor, there are now two ways of achieving this:

Basing the global edit on a specific antenna device and pattern, by selecting the Antenna checkbox, and then selecting the antenna device/pattern (optionally using the Electrical Tilt drop-down box).

The Global Editor will assign the specified device/pattern to the appropriate network elements in the Site Database.

- or -

Basing the global edit on a specified electrical tilt value across all currently assigned antenna devices:

Select the Elec. Tilt checkbox. You can then type a value in the edit box, as in this example:

The Global Editor will check for all the existing antennas within the filter whose tilt is currently different from the specified value. It will then check if they have a matching electrical downtilt in the list of patterns parented to their existing antenna device. Where it finds them, it will assign the different patterns to the appropriate network elements in the Site Database.

What's New in the ENTERPRISE Suite 8.0? Page 33What's New in ASSET 8.0?

Exporting Antennas Using XML Export

ASSET 8.0 provides some new XML Export filtering options for antenna objects, asshown in this example:

If you want to restrict the export of antenna objects, you can achieve this by usingan antenna filter or a network element filter (or both).

Using an Antenna filter:

Only the antennas included in this filter are exported. Optionally, you canfurther restrict by whether the objects are currently being used on nodes/cellsin the Site Database.

Using a Network Element filter:

Only the antennas currently assigned to the network elements(nodes/cells/repeaters) in this filter are exported. It is not necessary for theantenna objects to be included in this filter.

For more information on using the XML Export, see the 'Importing and Exporting'chapter in the ENTERPRISE User Reference Guide.


Information about Simulated Terminals

In ASSET 8.0, when you run the Simulator using snapshots, you can choose to include arrays that show information about the simulated terminals.

New parameter in Simulator Wizard

This generates extra arrays, which show the location of the terminals generated by the snapshots, and also whether they succeeded or failed in making a connection.

The arrays are as follows:

Terminal Info: Failure Rate

In each pixel, the failure rate is the proportion of attempted terminals that failed to make a connection, calculated as a percentage.

Terminal Info: Failure Reason

This array shows connection successes and failures in a single plot.

Terminal Info: Speed (km/h)

Dependencies: Terminal, Snapshots

This array shows the speed of the terminal in the corresponding Failure Reason array (some failure reasons are affected by the speed of the mobile).

This set of pictures shows an example of the Terminal Info - Failure Reason array:


Example of the Terminal Info: Failure Reason array

For more information on these arrays, see the ASSET Technical Reference Guide.

Map View Enhancements for Displaying Neighbours

ASSET 8.0 provides the following enhancements when you are displaying neighbour relationships in the Map View:

You can now display neighbours using Static Mode or Hot Track Mode

You can now interact between the Map View and the Neighbour Analysis (including proposed neighbours)

Static Mode and Hot Track Mode

This picture shows an example of the neighbour relationships displayed in the Map View:

Example of neighbour relationships displayed in the Map View


This picture shows an example of the Display Properties dialog box, in this case relating to 'All Neighbours':

You can use:

Static Mode if you want to show a static display of all the neighbour relationships that match your criteria

Hot Track Mode if you want to hover the mouse over each cell's azimuth to display its specific neighbours that match your criteria

You can also select additional limiting filters. For information about these, see the 'Creating Neighbour Relationships' chapter in the ASSET User Reference Guide.


Interacting between the Neighbour Analysis and Map View

When viewing the contents of the Neighbour Analysis dialog box, you can display the neighbours on the Map View, even if you have not yet applied the proposed neighbours to the database. This can be very useful when assessing any proposed new relationships. (You can set distinct colours for existing and proposed neighbours.)

Display options at top of Neighbour Analysis

Here is an example of the interactivity:

Example of interacting between the Neighbour Analysis and the Map View

When in Static mode, the Map View shows the appropriate neighbours each time you select a cell in the left pane of the Neighbour Analysis.

When in Hot Track mode, you can move the mouse over each cell's azimuth in the Map View to dynamically display its neighbours, and at the same time the respective cell is automatically highlighted in the Neighbour Analysis.


Model Assignment Calculator Enhancement

The quality of the network analysis within ASSET is inherently related to the quality of the pathloss predictions, which depends mainly on the propagation models used. In most cases, a specific model will be tuned for a specific environment (urban, suburban, rural and so on). Where this is the case, it is important that the model used for a cell matches the environmental characteristics surrounding the cell antenna.

In older versions of ASSET, the Model Assignment Calculator allowed you to define your environment types, run the calculation and then produce a report, giving information on which types would be suitable for each cell in the network. You could then use that data to help you manually assign the most suitable propagation model to each cell.

Now, in 8.0, the enhanced Model Assignment Calculator enables you to associate a specific model to each environment type, so that you can choose to assign the appropriate propagation models to each cell automatically, based on the results, as illustrated here:

The Model Assignment Calculator can assign propagation models based on customised environment type rules

In summary, the Model Assignment Calculator now enables you to:

Define different environment types (based mainly on the composition of clutter surrounding each cell antenna), and which propagation model should relate to each type

Calculate which environment type (and therefore propagation model) is most appropriate to each cell antenna

Generate a report and, optionally, choose to Apply the model assignments to the Site Database


Neighbour Planning Wizard based on Handover Events

ASSET 8.0 now offers a new Event-based Neighbour Wizard, which uses information from Operations Support Systems (OSS) Performance Management handover statistics files. It is available for the following neighbour plans:

UMTS Intra-Frequency

UMTS Inter-Frequency

UMTS-GSM

The wizard partly bases its neighbour calculations on the minimum number of events, read from an input handover statistics file:

Parameter in the Event-based Neighbour Wizard

Here is a simplified example of the file format:

Simplified example of the file format for the input statistics

For information on the required file format, see the 'Creating Neighbour Relationships' chapter in the ASSET User Reference Guide.


Complex Sort

You can use the Complex Sort simply as a visual aid in the Neighbour Analysis, or as a means of setting the priorities automatically by using the Set Priorities button after sorting:

Complex Sort option in Neighbour Analysis

This picture shows an example of the Custom Sort Configuration dialog box:

Custom Sort Configuration dialog box

The information in the right pane of the Neighbour Analysis appears according to your custom sort. Here is an example:

Neighbour Analysis listing items in a sequence corresponding to your Custom Sort


Neighbour Planning Wizard based on TrafficASSET 8.0 now enables you to run the Prediction-based Neighbour wizard withvarious calculation methods:

Area based

Traffic based

Area and traffic based

(Previously, only the Area method was available.)

This picture shows the new options in the wizard:

New options in the Prediction-based Neighbour wizard

If you want to use Traffic as an input, you simply need a relevant traffic raster alreadysaved to file.

After running the wizard, you can view the calculated overlapping percentages (Area,Traffic, Total) in the Neighbour Analysis.

Neighbour Planning Wizards using Background ThreadIn ASSET 8.0, the following neighbour planning wizards run on a background thread:

The Prediction-based Neighbour wizard

The Event-based Neighbour wizard

This enables you to continue using ASSET for other purposes while the neighbourplanning process is running.

Neighbour-related Conflict Warnings in NeighbourAnalysis

In ASSET 8.0, after using the Neighbour Analysis to update neighbour relationships,you can now choose to display neighbour-related conflict warnings for the proposedrelationships. The warnings will appear in the Message Log after the update has beenperformed.

These warnings relate to BSIC-BCCH conflicts or scrambling code conflicts betweenneighbouring cells in the following relationships:

GSM-GSM

GSM-GSM-GSM

GSM-UMTS-GSM

UMTS-UMTS

UMTS-UMTS-UMTS

Page 42 What's New in the ENTERPRISE Suite 8.0?What's New in ASSET 8.0?

UMTS-GSM-UMTS

This new option has been added to the existing Update Database dialog box:

Update Database dialog box from the Neighbour Analysis

Prediction Radius Calculator EnhancementsASSET 8.0 has made significant enhancements to the Prediction Radius Calculator.

The main improvement is that you can now choose from two different calculationmethods:

Pathloss

- or -

Signal Strength

But there are also new parameters regarding ‘Minimum Covered Pixel Density’.

There is a great benefit in setting sensible prediction radius values for the purpose ofcreating predictions, as it can achieve significant reductions in time taken and diskspace used.

You can use the Prediction Radius Calculator to automatically configure sensibleprediction radii for the cell antennas in the Site Database:

Example of the prediction radius value, specific to each antenna instance for each cell in the Site Database


This picture shows an example of the newly enhanced Prediction Radius Calculator:

Example of the Prediction Radius Calculator

When you run the Prediction Radius Calculator, you can now choose from two different calculation methods:

Method Description

Pathloss You can set a maximum pathloss value in dB. The calculated prediction radius is the point furthest from the cell that is equal to or less than the set value, confined by the general parameters (these are described in the next table).

Signal Strength You can set a minimum signal strength value in dBm. The calculated prediction radius is the point furthest from the cell that is equal to or greater than the set value, confined by the general parameters (these are described in the next table).

The Signal Strength values are technology-specific.


There are some general parameters that influence the calculations, described in this table:

Parameter Description

Max Prediction Radius (km)

This sets an outer limit for the radius calculation.

Radius Precision (km)

This sets a precision value that forces the final calculated radius for each cell antenna to be a multiple of this value.

Min Covered Pixel Density (%)

This enables you to set a minimum density of pixels that are 'covered' according to the Pathloss or Signal Strength value you have specified. It works in association with 'rings' that are sized by the radius precision value.

For a complete description of all these parameters, see the ASSET User Reference Guide.

Restricting Coverage and Simulation Arrays to Vectors

ASSET 8.0 now enables you to restrict the output arrays from the Coverage or Simulation wizards to specific vectors (rather than the rectangular region in the Map View). Here is the new option in each of the wizards:

You can choose from any of your polygons, lines or points. This picture shows an example comparison between a normal array and a restricted array:

Normal array (no restriction) Restricted array

Comparison between a normal array and an array restricted to vectors such as polygons or roads

The impact of cells and terminals outside the vectors is still considered. In other words, the coverage or simulation takes place in the normal way, but the arrays are ‘masked’ according to the chosen vectors.

If you subsequently use the Statistics dialog box to generate statistical reports from these arrays, the report's analysis area will be automatically restricted to the same vector(s).


Site Database - Customisable Object CountWhen you are viewing the Site Database, you can see the object count at the bottom ofthe left pane:

Example of Object Count in Site Database

These counts are influenced by which technologies are currently enabled in theproject, which filter is currently selected in the Site Database, and which NetworkDisplay Mode is being used.

The default object count represents the number of:

Properties (all technologies)

Sites/Nodes (all technologies)

Cells (all technologies)

If required, you can customise this display, to show the count for other networkelements or objects such as:

Networks

MSCs, BSCs, RNCs, SAEGWs and so on

Sites/Nodes/Cells/Repeaters (technology-specific)

Logical nodes

Logical and cellular connections

Antenna devices (the number of antennas specified at Node level, or Cell level forGSM, irrespective of them being used by the cells)

Here is an example of the Custom Object Count Configuration dialog box, accessible

by clicking the button at the bottom of the Site Database:

Example of Custom Object Count Configuration dialog box


CDMA2000 and EV-DO - Enhanced PN Code PlannerIn ASSET 8.0, the PN Code Planner for CDMA2000 or EV-DO has been improved sothat it uses the algorithm and reporting mechanism of the other code planners (suchas UMTS Scrambling Code planner and GSM BSIC Planner).

When you run the PN Code Planner, you can choose from two Code Re-use methods:

Fixed - constant re-use distance

Automatic - variable re-use distance

The PN Code Report dialog box now has greater usability:

Left pane of Report dialog box

Right pane of Report dialog box

It displays the successful assignments, and also displays any details of clashingsectors (where the constraints have been broken). For example, for each cell, itpresents the following:

Plan Result Icon: Success , Reuse Violation , Clashing Code

Sector/Cell Name

Plan Status

Intra-Site Spacing

PN Code

Number of Clashing Neighbours and Sectors, Distance, Clash Factor


There is also a powerful way of interacting between the Report dialog box and theMap View, in order to visualise specific cells and any clashing (or interfering) cells.

The chosen cell is highlighted in the Map View, together with its clashing cells, as inthis example:

Map view showing cell selected in Report dialog box and its clashing cells

For all the code planning wizards in ASSET, you can now right-click on any row inthe Report dialog box, and copy it to the Windows® clipboard. This enables you topaste the contents of the row into another application such as Notepad, Word, or atext editor.

GSM - Optional Network Hierarchy and Support forLogical Connections

In ASSET 8.0, you can now have a non-hierarchical structure in the Site Database forthe GSM technology (and likewise for PMR/TETRA/iDEN).

This means that GSM networks can now be modelled in the same way as othertechnologies such as UMTS, LTE and CDMA2000. In other words, the use of networkhierarchies in ENTERPRISE is optional. GSM networks are now attached to PLMNs inthe Site Database. So sites can be parented (non-hierarchically) directly to this PLMNnetwork, or they can be parented (hierarchically) to a 'higher' network element.

To illustrate this, this table shows the difference when viewing the network in LogicalLinks View display mode in the Site Database:

Logical Links View - Network Structured Hierarchically Logical Links View - Network Structured Non-hierarchically


Here are some further ways that greater consistency between the technologies has been achieved:

GSM networks are now included (as with the other technologies) in the 'Network View' mode in the Site Database:

Network View

For all technologies, any hierarchical structures are disregarded when in Network View display mode.

You can now make logical and cellular connections in GSM, in line with the other technologies, as shown in this example of the Logical/Cellular Connection Database:


GSM - Writing Interference Table Traffic to Sub-cellsAn interference table (sometimes known as an interference matrix) contains valuesthat represent the severity of interference for any cell-pair combination for whichthere are overlapping predictions, if that pair of cells were to be allocated the same oradjacent carriers.

As part of its calculations, the Interference Table wizard can capture the traffic datafor each sub-cell.

For GSM, ASSET 8.0 now enables you to write this data automatically to the sub-cellsin the Site Database:

New option in GSM Interference Table Wizard

If you do this, the values are loaded onto the General tab of the Site Database, as inthis example:

Example of Captured Traffic Data written automatically to the Site Database

This is only applicable to terminal types set to 'GSM Circuit Switched (CS)'.


GSM and UMTS - LAC and RAC Assignment PlannerASSET 8.0 provides a LAC and RAC Assignment Planner. This enables you to plan LAC(Location Area Codes) and RAC (Routing Area Codes) for the cells in your network.

The LAC and RAC parameters are stored within the Site Database at the cell level.

The calculation of these codes uses an algorithm based on the neighbour relationshipsbetween the cells (either calculated dynamically or retrieved from the database), butconstrained by network element hierarchy rules.

In addition, the calculations for LAC consider any user-defined constraints based onstatus field values assigned to network elements in the Site Database (this can be atthe cell, site/node or Property level).

This is the basic process performed by the LAC and RAC Assignment Planner wizard:

Calculates neighbour relationships dynamically or loads existing relationshipsfrom database, as specified in the wizard.

(The dynamic process uses the ASSET Neighbour Planner.)

Runs the LAC and RAC assignment algorithm, constrained or influenced by:

The neighbour relationships

The network element hierarchy rules

Any status field value LAC constraints specified during the configuration ofthe wizard

Determines LAC and RAC values for the cells, where such values are valid.

Stores the valid LAC and RAC values for the successfully planned cells in the SiteDatabase on the General tab, as in this example:

For full information about this feature, see the 'Location-related Planning for GSM orUMTS' chapter in the ASSET User Reference Guide.


GSM and UMTS - Location Based Services Planner

ASSET 8.0 provides a Location Based Services Planner. This enables you to obtain specific geographic data for each cell in the network; this data can be useful to external management information systems for applications such as marketing.

This data is the 'Centre of Gravity' of the service area of each cell in a network, expressed as geographic co-ordinates.

The following definition of 'Centre of Gravity' reflects the functionality of this planner:

"The focal point of a cell's service area at which the overall area or traffic may be regarded as being concentrated".

The Location Based Services Planner calculates this information by generating service area plots, and using an algorithm based on one of the following calculation methods:

Calculation Method Basis of Centre of Gravity Calculation

Area The cell's service area.

Traffic The traffic within the cell's service area.

Area and Traffic Weighted combination of area and traffic within the cell's service area.

You can choose which calculation method to use in the planner.

Optionally, you can also choose to calculate the associated 'Radius'.

The radius is the radius of the circle, centred at the Centre of Gravity co-ordinates, that contains a user-defined percentage of that cell's served area or traffic.

The results of the calculations will automatically appear in user-defined 'status fields' in the Site Database for each planned cell. This picture shows an example:

Example of Site Database showing the calculated geographical information on a cell

For full information about this feature, see the 'Location-related Planning for GSM or UMTS' chapter in the ASSET User Reference Guide.


GSM and UMTS - Polygon Assignment Planner

ASSET 8.0 provides a Polygon Assignment Planner. This enables you to make an 'association' between individual cells and individual polygons.

There are various applications for this information. For example, it can assist the emergency services in knowing the probable geographic location of an emergency call, if the cell handling the call is already 'associated' with a polygon representing a specific emergency zone.

The Polygon Assignment Planner creates cell-polygon associations based on a service area plot, overlaid on the areas of a user-defined selection of polygons. The service area of each polygon can be then calculated in terms of 'area' or 'population density', and the polygon giving the highest result can be ascertained.

After the cell-polygon associations have been calculated, the results can be stored in the Site Database. To achieve this, the planner stores an identifying characteristic of the associated polygon for each cell as a user-specified 'status field' value.

There are two basic ways of determining the polygon assignment calculations for this planner:

Calculation Method Basis of Polygon Assignment Calculation

Area The amount of a cell's service area that overlaps each polygon area.

Population density The amount of traffic within a cell's service area that overlaps each polygon area.

If you want to calculate by population density, you can either use one or more vectors, or a traffic raster. In either case, there must be an attribute representing population, so that each pixel contains a population value.


This example picture of the Map View shows some polygons overlapped by the service area plots of a group of cells:

Example of Map View showing the polygons overlapped by the service area plots of a group of cells

After running the planner, using the above example, the calculations (based on area or population density) may determine that the 'Zone 2' polygon contains the highest result for cell 'Site7A'. If so, the resulting polygon assignments will automatically appear in the Site Database for this cell, as shown in this example:

Example of Site Database showing identifying characteristics (attribute information) of a polygon on a cell

For full information about this feature, see the 'Location-related Planning for GSM or UMTS' chapter in the ASSET User Reference Guide.


LTE - Line Of Sight Array and Improved MIMO Modelling

For LTE networks, ASSET 8.0 now provides:

A new Line Of Sight (LOS) array

Improved MIMO modelling when you run the Simulator

This is relevant if you have the Enhanced Macrocell propagation model assigned to the cells in your network. This model can use different calculation parameters for LOS and NLOS, which it can distinguish at each predicted location.

Now, these models are able to produce LOS/NLOS information for each predicted location, and this information is used to generate a 'Line Of Sight' array when you run the LTE Simulator. Here is an example:

Example of Line Of Sight array

In addition, the same information allows you to model MIMO in a better way when performing an LTE simulation, by choosing to deactivate MIMO in areas that have LOS to the serving cell. This is because MIMO schemes rely on a low correlation between the signal paths to the transmit elements of an antenna; locations that have LOS to an antenna are more likely to have a high correlation. So, when you run the LTE Simulator Wizard, there is now a new step that enables you to selectively activate or deactivate the MIMO modes in areas that have LOS to the serving cell. This relates to cells using the Enhanced Macrocell model.


The new step in the LTE Simulator Wizard is shown here:

Example of MIMO options in LTE Simulator Wizard

For more information, see the following chapters in the ASSET User Reference Guide:

Using Propagation Models ('About the Enhanced Macrocell Model' section)

Using ASSET with LTE ('Using AAS Support for LTE' section)

LTE - Scheduled Users Limit added to Simulator

In ASSET 8.0, for LTE cells, there is a new 'Number of Scheduled Users' parameter in the Site Database:

New parameter on LTE Params tab in Site Database

This represents the maximum number of simultaneous users considered for resource allocation by the cell. This number is used in simulations of network performance (when running snapshots). The cell will not serve more users than this specified limit, regardless of their service type or transmission mode. When a connection would cause the limit to be exceeded, ‘User Limit’ shows as a contributing reason for failure in the LTE Composite Report and LTE Failure Report.


LTE - Support for MME and SAEGW Network Elements

ASSET 8.0 now supports the LTE higher order network elements:

MME: Mobility Management Entity

SAEGW: System Architecture Evolution Gateway

This means that in LTE you can now add these elements to your LTE network in the Site Database or Map View:

SAEGW

MME

LTE eNodeB

LTE Repeater

These two new elements are also supported in the filtering, reporting, XML import/export, and so on.

In the Site Database, if required, an eNodeB can be parented to both an SAEGW and MME, as in this example:

You can also parent an eNodeB to multiple SAEGWs and/or MMEs.

In addition to the above cellular connections to/from these new elements, you can also now create logical connections.


Planning Wizards - Copying Data to Clipboard

In any of the Planner Report dialog boxes, you can select any row in the left or right pane, and then copy it to the Windows® clipboard.

This is applicable to:

GSM BSIC Planner

UMTS Scrambling Code Planner

CDMA2000/EV-DO PN Code Planner

LTE Physical Cell ID Planner

LTE Frequency Planner

Mobile WiMAX PN Code Index Planner

Mobile WiMAX Frequency Planner

Here is an example:

To do this:

1 Select a row in either the left pane or the right pane of the report dialog box.

2 Right-click on the row.

3 Select 'Copy selected rows to clipboard'.

The contents of the row are copied to clipboard as a text string, which you can then paste into another application such as Notepad, Word, a text editor, and so on.


What's New in the ENTERPRISE Suite 8.0? Page 59 What's New in CONNECT 8.0?

What's New in CONNECT 8.0?

In CONNECT 8.0, the following additional features are now available.

Automatic Frequency and Capacity Planning

In CONNECT, you can use the Automatic Frequency and Capacity Planner (AFCP) to optimise the performance for your network. You can run the planner in two different modes, depending on what you want to optimise:

If you run the Frequency Planner , you can optimise based on:

Increased availability

Reduced interference degradation

If you run the Frequency and Capacity Planner, you can additionally optimise based on:

Maximised capacity

C H A P T E R 7

Page 60 What's New in the ENTERPRISE Suite 8.0? What's New in CONNECT 8.0?

This picture shows an example of these prerequisites:

Automatic Planner: General Prerequisites

The AFCP then uses a metaheuristic search algorithm in order to find a solution to meet the requirements that you set, using the following parameter values:

The available frequency channels

Frequency designation

Polarisation

Power

Modulation (for frequency and capacity only)


When you run the Automatic Planner, you can view the progress and the results of the search algorithm in the Automatic Planner dialog box:

Automatic Planner - algorithm search results

Statistical data is displayed on the left-hand side, indicating the iteration number that is currently running, the date and time at which the planner was started and the best solution energy that has been found so far:

Automatic planner statistics

The graph on the right-hand side shows a visual representation of the planner results, plotting the total energy, total interference (in dB) or total capacity (Mbps) per iteration. You can select which of these data categories is shown using the radio buttons on the right-hand side:

Selecting what data category is displayed


When the Automatic Planner has finished running, you can present and manipulate the results in a number of different ways. You can:

Generate a Microsoft Excel report detailing the best solution from the results:

Save the graph as a graphics image (*.bmp or *.jpg)

Print the graph displaying the results

Apply the best solution to the Link Database


Enhanced Carried Traffic Analysis

Further improvements have been made to enhance the backhaul carried traffic analysis functionality that was introduced in v7.0.

To enable you to model 4th generation networks in a more realistic manner, logical/cellular connections (or 'interfaces') are now represented more accurately in CONNECT:

Logical/cellular connections are now grouped under the label 'interfaces', according to technology type (for example, UMTS interfaces):

You can now specify the interface names, either in the Logical/Cellular Connection Database or on the new Connections tab of the Site Database


In the Logical/Cellular Connection Database, a new Traffic tab has been added:

On this tab, you can view and edit details of the CS and PS traffic routed through the interface. In particular, you can now specify the percentage of generated traffic (or the total logical traffic in Mbps) that is routed over each of the logical connections.

Also in the Logical/Cellular Connection Database, the Routes tab has been improved to display more useful information for each hop, such as Load (Mbps), Occupancy (%) and Availability (%), as well as the Total Availability for the route (%).

You can also view Occupancy on the Type subtab of the General tab for a link in the Link Database.

You can now generate a Microsoft Excel report of data from the Logical/Cellular Connection Database.


You can now add new interfaces in the Link Database, using the new Connections tab. From this tab, you can use the Connection Creation dialog box, which enables you to create interfaces based on defined criteria - for example, the required technology and maximum length between network elements:

The Unified Route Planner has also been improved, to enable you to specify the following routing criteria:

A maximum occupancy limit (%) for route hops

A minimum end-to-end availability for routes (%)

You can also now indicate whether you want to create primary or secondary routes.

This picture shows an example of the improved Unified Route Planner:

Unified Route Planner


What's New in the ENTERPRISE Suite 8.0? Page 67 Help Us Help You

Help Us Help You

Can You Improve Our User Assistance?

We are always trying to improve the online Help and User Reference Guides.

If you cannot find the Help you were looking for, need more information, or have any suggestions for improvements, we would be grateful for your feedback.

Also, if you are generally satisfied with these resources, we would appreciate any positive feedback.

You can also help us by completing our brief online questionnaire (which you can access from the Documentation section of the AIRCOM website).

Alternatively, you can contact us directly at [email protected].

C H A P T E R 8

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