LTE Radio Planning

LTE Radio Planning Course Overview

The LTE radio planning training provides the necessary guidelines for LTE radio network planning and design. LTE and radio theory are combined with the hands-on demonstrations. There are also live exercises that use the RNP tool combined with state-of-the-art LTE radio interface and network simulators.

The first sections of the LTE radio planning course outline the RNP process and EPC architecture.

The next sections highlight the most important parameters and elements of the LTE radio interface. The propagation environment for LTE is also detailed. Multiple antenna techniques, MIMO, are described together with their influence on the LTE network performance.

Another major area of the LTE planning course includes link budget estimation and this moves on to an investigation of coverage planning.

During the LTE radio planning course, the issue of interference management and frequency planning is covered because this is one of the major areas differentiating LTE from previous 3GPP systems (GSM and UMTS).

Capacity planning is also addressed, together with traffic and QoS considerations.

The final elements of the LTE radio planning course cover the key radio interface procedures and the provision of formulated recommendations for their configuration. The course ends by detailing the roadmaps of forthcoming LTE features that may be of special use for the long-term network planners.

Throughout the LTE radio planning the RNP tool is used as much as possible along with the radio interface and network simulators. This allows the information to be presented in a way that is easier to understand as it allows scenarios to be simulated and displayed more easily.

Who should attend:

The LTE Radio Planning training course has been devised for telecommunications professionals involved in LTE radio network planning, design and testing. The course is also suitable for engineers or product managers that are involved in the design of tools and services supporting the network planning process.

LTE Radio Planning Course contents:

LTE Radio Planning Introduction

• Steps in the radio network planning process, input data and design goals / requirements

• Initial planning, detailed planning, parameter planning, verification and acceptance

• Tools supporting the planning process

• Architecture of E-UTRAN and EPC

• Comparing LTE planning to GSM and UMTS

LTE Air Interface and Cell Parameters

• E-UTRA FDD radio frame

• Physical channels, control channel elements, resource blocks, reference signals and preambles

• PHY channels and signals for downlink: PDSCH, PBCH, PDCCH, PCFICH, PHICH, RS, P-SS, S-SS, and uplink: PUSCH, PUCCH, PRACH, DRS, SRS

• Simulation tool exercise

LTE Radio Propagation LTE

• LTE spectrum allocations and regulatory requirements

• eNB and UE transmitter and receiver requirements

• Key propagation phenomena

• Applicable propagation models (COST, SUI, etc) and their parameters

• RNP tool simulation case studies

Antennas for LTE

• Basic antenna parameters: beamwidth, gain, polarization, HBW, front-to-back ratio, EIRP

• LTE spatial diversity techniques

• SU-MIMO and MU-MIMO

• MIMO mode switching and feedback

• Practical antenna considerations

• MIMO influence on link reliability and network capacity

• E-UTRAN Rel 10 MIMO extensions

LTE Link Budget and Coverage Planning

• Gains and losses for downlink and uplink

• LTE SNIR and sensitivity requirements

• Noise power calculation and interference power estimates

• Effect of antenna on the LTE link budget

• Influence of cyclic prefix

• RSSI, RSRP and RSRQ

• Calculating range, inter-site distance and cell area

• LTE link budget exercises for downlink and uplink

• Morphology

• Radio Network Planning, RNP tool configuration

• Site placement and co-siting considerations

• Comparing LTE coverage to GSM and UMTS

• Plots for distribution of: SNIR, signal level, best servers, max achievable data rates

• Repeaters in LTE (working in Layer 1, Layer 2 or Layer 3)

• Consideration of the LTE indoor planning

• RNP tool practical examples

Frequency Planning and Interference Control

• Review of mechanisms for interference control

• Single Frequency Network (SFN) concept

• OFDMA and SC-FDMA interference scenarios

• Integer and fractional frequency reuse

• Soft frequency reuse and partial frequency reuse

• Load balancing

• Dynamic frequency assignments

• Influence of FDD vs TDD and inter-cell synchronization

• Use of X2 interface

• Simulation case studies

LTE Capacity Planning

• Use of marketing data in capacity planning

• Modeling of packet radio traffic

• QoS concept and QoS requirements

• Influence of Modulation and Coding Scheme distribution on sector capacity

• Influence of MIMO

• Building and using traffic maps

• Backhaul and backbone network considerations

• Capacity budget exercise

Configuration of the LTE Radio Procedures

• Synchronization procedure and sync signal planning

• Random access procedure and preamble assignment

• Cell reselection and handover

• Power control

• Measurement reporting

• Call setup

• Self-Organized Network (SON) concept

Roadmap of LTE Features

• Summary of the functional content of the 3GPP E-UTRAN Rel 8

• What features we can expect in the 3GPP E-UTRAN Rel 9 and Rel 10

Course pre-requisites:

General knowledge about LTE architecture, terminology and radio interface is recommended. A basic understanding of radio propagation, and planning as well as UMTS, HSPA and WiMAX is useful although not essential.

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