LTE: Addressing the Challenges

7/29/2019 LTE: Addressing the Challenges

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Stephen Bowker, CTO, AIRCOM International

LTE: Addressing the Challenges

James Middleton, Managing Editor, telecoms.com


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LTE is being adopted NOW!

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2010 2011 2012 2013 2014+

Global LTE launch forecasts

Informa T&M


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The early adopters

Informa T&M


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Getting it right

Spectrum Consolidation Cost effective rollout


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Stephen Bowker, CTO, AIRCOM International

LTE: Addressing the Challenges

James Middleton, Managing Editor, telecoms.com


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6 2012 AIRCOM International Ltd

Addressing the ChallengesStephen Bowker, CTOAIRCOM International1 February 2012
http://www.3gpp.org/Release-9-Completion


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Introduction to AIRCOM InternationalAIRCOM 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 Consulting Services

Core Capabilities

Strategy and Technology Planning

Network Design and Planning Spectrum Re-farming Solutions

Vendor Management

Roll-out Management

Optimisation Services

Network operations outsourcing

Core Capabilities

Market Leading Radio Planning Tool - ASSET

Highly scalable, flexible Mobile Network PerformanceManagement 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


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LTE has arrived and is accelerating fast!

By 31 December 2011, 49 LTE networks had

launched commercially in 29 countries

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 Circuit-

Switched FallBack or dual radios

In some cases (e.g. KT Korea) 2G services are

being completely shutdown as LTE is being rolled

out

Status of LTE Ecosystem Report - 20 Jan 2012

Source: GSA GSM mobile Suppliers Associationhttp://www.gsacom.com
http://www.gsa.com/http://www.gsa.com/


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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


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Plan and Design

Design Objectives

Design Basis

Model Calibration

Radio + Backhaul Design

Measurement test processes

Business Planning (HSPA+ vs. LTE)

Migration strategies

Spectrum Planning

Infrastructure Sharing

LTE trials evaluation

LTE Strategy

LTE Strategic Decision Making


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LTE Field Testing, Trials and Vendor Evaluation


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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


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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


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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


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LTE Typical Throughput and Round Trip

First commercial LTE network was

launched in Sweden (Dec 09)

The Nordics & Scandinavia are aninteresting area to observe for newmobile technologies

Numbers shown below are consistentwith other networks AIRCOM hasbenchmarked globally

Typically 4-6x (under load) currentUMTS/HSPA speeds and less than 50%Round Trip Times

Publically available LTE Throughput DataSource: http://www.bredbandskollen.se/

UL Kbps DL Kbps RTT(ms) Samples Not Accept Acceptable Good

Use 10-80 Mbits/s 4GSelect City or Alla
http://www.bredbandskollen.se/http://www.bredbandskollen.se/


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LTE Example Drive Test MIMO Impacts

Example drive test comparing throughput

when in MIMO 2x2 Open-Loop SpatialMultiplexing (Rank 1) with Transmit DiversityMode/No MIMO (Rank 0)

Throughput Average (Example)Rank 0 = 9395 Kbps

Rank 1 =13446 Kbpsshowing a 43% improvement

When closed loop MIMO devices (UEs)become available we would expect this toimprove to ~70%

Introducing 4x4 or 4x2 MIMO we wouldexpect a ~60% improvement over 2x2MIMO

Samples

CW0/CW1 QPSK 16QAM 64QAM

QPSK 19724 0 0

16QAM 2 11861 2

64QAM 1 0 6795

Single-antenna port; port 0 samples # 1915

Transmit diversity samples # 12813

Open-loop spatial multiplexing samples # 37492


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Radio Access Technology Planning

Inter-Technology Radio Planning requires

tools to support multiple technologiessimultaneously in same project Support for Shared Antenna Systems

Interim Voice Services such as CSFB aredependent on having 2G/3G coverage co-incidental with LTE

Inter-RAT multi-technology features suchas: simulated/live traffic capture,neighbour planning, PCI planning

Joint planning of Tracking Areas in LTEand Location Areas in 2G and 3G

Automation, including Live update ofconfiguration parameters from networkkeeps planning tools in sync


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ENTERPRISE WEB SERVICES (EWS)LIVE PLAN SERVER

LIVE NETWORK CONFIGURATION DATA FROM VENDOR OMCS

........

VENDOR-1/OMC-1 VENDOR-2/OMC-2 VENDOR-3/OMC-3 VENDOR-N/OMC-N

CLIENTS

INVENTORY SITE DATABASE

ENGINEERING DATA

READ/COMPARE

UPDATE

CREATE

DELETE

FULLYAUTOMATED

Evolving Configurations = Live Planning


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Carried Traffic Analysis for LTE (CTA)

Integration between ASSET (RF planning tool) and CONNECT (backhaul planningtool)

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 SAEGWor MME)

Inter-technology operation

Actual and simulated trafficfrom different sources (GSM,UMTS, LTE sites) is createdand carried over

TransmissionBackhaul

CoreNetwork

Air Interface


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LTE: Performance Management Challenge

To successfully monitor LTE a PM Toolmust:

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 PMdata on a single database

Have powerful KPIs and reporting

Drill down/up/across on data to find rootcauses to problems

Automatic performance alarms andthreshold crossing alerts


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SON Introduction Organising or Optimising?

SONSelf-Organising Networks

SON consists of: Self-Configuration, Self-Optimisation, Self-Healing functions

Self-Configuration

Distributed, vendor specific algorithms that automatically configure eNodeB as they aredeployed (Self-Establishment of a new eNodeB)

Includes functions such as software download, self configuration of fundamental functions asa 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, andother functions such as load balancing and control channel power settings

Mobility parameters to optimise coverage and capacity, which are direct trade-off with eachother.

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


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SON Gaining the Trust of Engineering

Itf-NItf-N

OMC

OMC

Network Manager

OMC

SONEngine

SON_EngineAlgorithms

Vendor SON

Presentation

T0 Data

Global Policy

Policy Control Policy Control

Policy Perf. Policy Perf.

CentralisedVendor 1

SON

DistributedVendor 1

SON

CentralisedVendor 2

SON

DistributedVendor 2

SON

NetworkMonitoring

SON ENGINEI-View Framework

VendorSON

Monitorin

g

N

etworkConfiguration

VendorSON

AlgorithmSelectionandTuning

1 2 3 4

Automation Sequence


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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-3G-

LTE) 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


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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 forCalculating the true costs savings of SONs

Meet the AIRCOM Team at:

Mobile World Congress

Barcelona 27 Feb-1 Mar Stand 1A23

CTIA AmericasNew Orleans 8 -10 May Hall F, Booth No. 5568

LTE World SummitBarcelona 23-24 May Stand 68

For more information visit our website at: www.aircominternational.com


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2012 AIRCOM International Ltd

Documents

LTE: Addressing the Challenges