Abstract Optimum basestation positioning in the framework

of LTE wireless networks is not an easy task since there are

several factors that need to be taken into account. The ever
increasing demand for geographically inhomogeneous
capacity, which has become the limiting factor in the network
planning process, as well as the presence of relay nodes and
mixed cell scenarios, must all now be considered along with the
systems constraints and capabilities. In this paper, the
optimization problem for an LTE system is described and
results are produced with a proposed partially combinatorial
optimization algorithm. The optimization analysis is based on
coverage, capacity and cost criteria. Example results are
provided for a typical case study that give useful planning
insights for LTE systems.
Index Terms Radio network planning, Basestation location,
LTE systems.
I. INTRODUCTION
RF planning is a multi-step process of a rather iterative
nature. In the context of 2G wireless systems this process
could be divided in two main unrelated steps, i.e. the
coverage and capacity planning stages. This however is not
the case with 3G WCDMA and 4G LTE systems, where
capacity and coverage planning are strongly interrelated and
should be treated simultaneously.
Current LTE deployments (Rel. 8/9) offer up to 100Mbps
peak rates with traffic that includes voice and data from cell
phones and other mobile devices such as tablets. The
plethora of data services (web browsing, social networking,
audio, video, software downloading) requires a sound
estimation of the user throughput requirements which is
rather difficult to achieve. Additionally, at the end of 2012
~10% of the population was under LTE while the
projections suggest that this percentage will climb up to
60% at the end of 2018 [1]. Key feature of Release 12 and
beyond is the utilization of heterogeneous deployments that
comprise both high (macro) and low power nodes [2].
Finding the optimal LTE network deployment amounts to
solving an optimization problem of combinatorial nature.
As a consequence, system modeling that allows for rapid
performance assessment and hence selection among a
typically huge number of candidate solutions, is crucial.
The cost and complexity of a network is closely related to
the number of basestations required to achieve the operator's
service objectives. The location of basestations is not an
easy task and there are numerous factors that must be taken
into account when deciding the optimum position.
Planning and performance optimization in cellular networks
form a very active line of research with a considerable
amount of published work in the open literature especially
on UMTS network planning and optimization, ranging from
BS location and coverage planning to antenna parameter
conguration and cell load balancing [3-5]. The problem of
base station (BS) positioning planning becomes complicated
in the framework of 4G wireless networks since the
presence of relay nodes (RNs) and mixed cell structures
must now be included in the planning process. Typical
optimization algorithms (combinatorial, genetic, greedy,
simulating annealing) have already been used for this type
of problems (e.g. [6]). However, the combined problem of
optimized base-station and relay-node planning in order to
improve network coverage and capacity as well as cost,
especially in 4G systems, has received little attention.
In this paper, we have developed a rigorous LTE system
model that works for a general network topology and
explicitly accounts for mixed cell structures and relay nodes
as well as non-uniform trafc demand (hotspots). A
partially combinatorial optimization algorithm that exploits
specific characteristics of the LTE system (CQI) has also
been developed in order to automatically identify an
optimum solution that meets the operators requirements in
terms of coverage and capacity in a given area, with the
minimum number of basestations and hence, cost.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: Section
II describes the general BS positioning problem in the
context of an LTE network, section III describes the
optimization algorithm, section IV presents simulation
results for a case study and finally section V concludes the
paper.
II. THE PROBLEM
A number of discrete user supplied points or control nodes
(CNs) are used to represent the capacity and coverage
requirements in the operational area [7]. The initial number
of possible BS locations is user supplied (i.e. locations
where planning permission and/or agreements have been
made). The initial selection of user supplied sites will
determine to a great extent, the final outcome, since no
additional locations will be identified during the
optimization process, and the user selected positions will
not be modified.
A typical problem is shown in Figure 1, where a number of
control nodes (CNs) have been distributed in an area. A
number of possible base station (BS) locations are also
Automatic Location of Base-Stations for Optimum
Coverage and Capacity Planning of LTE Systems
G.E. Athanasiadou, D. Zarbouti, G.V. Tsoulos
University of Peloponnese, Department of Informatics and Telecommunications,
Tripoli 22100, Greece, E-mail: {gathanas, dzarb, gtsoulos}@uop.gr

displayed in the map. Each macro base station has three
sectors, pointing towards 30
o
, 150
o
and 270
o
in azimuth.
The antenna pattern of [8] is used for each sector antenna.
In the direction of maximum power, each sector can also
have an omnidirectional Relay Node (RN) which is
activated only if a CN is connected to the basestation
through this relay node. In the simulation, the micro
basestations are omnidirectional and they dont have relay
any nodes. The propagation module is based on the
WINNER model [9], which gives different path loss values
for macro, micro and relay node scenarios. The LOS
distance in the WINNER model is set to 500m and
shadowing is not included in this stage, in order to be able
to check the validity of the simulation outcome.
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
Test Area (axes in meters)

Figure 1: Test area of the case scenario. Thick red dots are
possible locations for sectorized BSs, thick green dots are
possible locations for micro BSs, black stars are control
nodes and thick magenta stars represent hot spot areas.

The propagation parameters of the simulation are
summarized in Table 1.

EIRP of a macro BS (sector) 46dBm + 18dBi = 64dBm
EIRP of a micro BS 30dBm + 7dBi = 37dBm
EIRP of a Relay Node 30dBm + 5dBi = 35dBm
Propagation model used for
macro base stations
WINNER Path Loss
Models: Scenario C2 NLOS
with hTx = 25m
Propagation model used for
micro BS
WINNER Path Loss
Models: Scenario B1 NLOS
with hTx =10m, d
LOS
=
500m
Propagation model used for
Relay Nodes
WINNER Path Loss
Models: Scenario B1 NLOS
with hTx = 5m, d
LOS
= 500m
User/micro/RN antenna
pattern
Omnidirectional
Sector antenna pattern 3GPP antenna pattern for
120
o
sector [8]
Total cable losses 2dB
Central frequency 2.12GHz

Table 1: Propagation parameters of the simulation

The capacity module that provides the LTE rate calculation
for each user is described with the following flow chart
where the Rank Index (RI) and the number of RBs that will
be allocated to the user are known.
SIR mapping to
CQI
T
a
b
l
e

7
.
2
.
3
-
1
Modulation Code Rate
Data_Bits
(eq.1)
USER_RATE =
Data_Bits/1ms
RBs
RI

Figure 2: Rate calculation for each user according to LTE.
(Table 7.2.3-1 can be found in [12]).
The user demands are represented by two different sets of
control nodes. There is a set of CNs which require a relative
small data rate (e.g. 1-3Mbps) and there are hot spot areas
which require ten times more capacity. All bandwidth
resources are available to each sector and microcell (reuse
pattern 1/3). Hence, each sector of a macrocell and each
microcell have 100 Resource Blocks (RBs) to allocate to
users. The number of RBs which are allocated to each CN is
a function of the channel Signal-to-Noise-plus-Interference
Ratio (SINR) and the user demand for data rate. For the
LTE rate calculations the authors use a similar approach as
the one presented in [11]. For determining the minimum
number of RBs that need to be allocated by the serving node
to the CN, the process described in Figure 2 is followed.
More specifically,
a) the SINR that is derived at the CN is mapped to a single
Channel Quality Index (CQI) value using the SINR-to-CQI
mapping function given in [10].
b) the CQI is mapped to a proper modulation level (Q
m
)and
code rate (CR). This mapping is derived according to Table
7.2.3-1 of [12].
c) equation 1 provides the required number of RBs (N
RB
)
when the CN throughput (CN
t
) is known. In equation 1 N
RE

is the number of Resource Elements (REs) per RB that for
the purposes of this work is set to 126 (CFI=3,
Transmission Mode 1), T
slot
is the time duration of the LTE
slot, while the 24bits-CRC of LTE has also been
considered.
CRC CR Q N N RI T CN
m RE RB slot t
8
1
8
(eq.1)
The RNs are considered to be outband, i.e. the
communication of the RNs with the corresponding macro
basestation is not using these bandwidth resources. The RBs

needed by the users connected to an RN, are subtracted by
the pool of RBs of the corresponding macro basestation.
The algorithm must provide the bandwidth resources
according to the SINR and the data rate request, as well as
coverage to all control nodes using the smallest sub-set of
possible eNBs. Among solutions with equal number of base
stations, those which provide better overall channel SINR
are preferred.
III. THE OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHM
The proposed optimization algorithm follows a partially
combinatorial approach. The combination approach fits
perfectly with the idea of pre-selected antenna positions.
Similar approaches have been used for automatically
locating basestations for 2G systems with coverage and
traffic criteria [13-14]. The idea is that if all possible
combinations of basestation positions are examined the
optimum combination for this set of BSs will be found.
However, the number of combinations increases
dramatically as the number of possible locations is
increased. To avoid this problem this algorithm segments
the total number of possible locations into smaller groups,
which are randomly selected, and for each smaller group an
exhaustive search for solution is performed.
The test area is first divided into four equal subareas (e.g.
1.5Kmx1.5Km for the area of Figure 1) where the partially
combinatorial algorithm is applied. Half of the positions of
each subarea form the set of BS positions to examine for the
whole area. All basestations which participate in any of the
produced solutions for the subareas form the group of
candidate positions for the total area. Hence, the number of
possible locations reduces to half (or even more if required),
improving dramatically the algorithm speed, making it
possible to examine scenarios with a large number of
candidate positions.
The initial number of BSs for each segment is determined
by estimating the number of BSs needed to fulfill the capacity
criterion assuming a moderate channel quality in terms of
SINR for all links (CQI = 4). If the algorithm after going
through the produced combinations cannot find a solution, a
lower CQI is assumed (i.e. a higher number of required
BSs) until a solution is found or CQI reaches its lowest
value (CQI=1).
Also, a first estimate for the number of BSs needed to fulfill
the coverage criterion is found by applying a simple greedy
algorithm. Given a number of BSs and control nodes, the
greedy algorithm first selects the BS that covers the most
control nodes. The BS and the control nodes are then removed
from the area of study and the same procedure is repeated until
there are no control nodes left to cover. The larger of these two
estimations (one for the coverage and one for the capacity
criterion) sets the initial number of locations in the examined
combinations.
For each combination of possible basestations, the
algorithm first checks if all CNs are covered, i.e. the
received power is above the threshold of -95dBm, as it is
calculated by the LTE link budget. If the CNs are not
covered then the proposed solution is invalid and the
algorithm proceeds to the next combination of possible BSs.
If the solution passes the coverage test, the SINR and the
required RBs for all possible links are calculated. The CNs
which are covered by only one BS, are the first to be
allocated to an eNB. Then, starting from the CNs which
require the highest number of RBs, each CN is allocated to
the eNB where it has the highest SINR. If this eNB has not
enough available RBs, the next eNB is considered, until
there are not any eNbs left. If a CN cannot be served by any
of the basestations, the solution is invalid. If all CNs are
allocated to an eNB, the combination is stored as one
possible solution and the algorithm continues the search (for
other solutions with equal or smaller number of
basestations) until a predefined number of trials (e.g. 100) is
reached.
At the end of the search, the algorithm chooses the solution
with the minimum cost. Given that macrocells are much
more expensive to deploy, the cost of each microcell and
RN is considered to be 1/10 and 1/20 of the cost of a
macrocell, respectively [1]. Channel quality (i.e. required
bandwidth resources) as well as 95% coverage of the total
area, are also considered as secondary criteria.
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS FOR A CASE STUDY
In this section a case study is performed for a 3Km x 3Km
area (Figure 1) where 80 CNs are randomly placed, 10% of
which represent hot spots. The required data rate for the
CNs is 1Mbps, and for the hot spots 10Mbps. In the area
there are 40 randomly placed possible macrocells with three
sectors each, as well as 40 microcells with omnidirectional
antennas. The distance between the RN and the
corresponding macrocell is 400m.
The solution shown in Figure 3.a has four sectorized macro
basestations (thick red dots in the figure) and one micro
basestation (thick green dot). At all sectors the RNs (black
circles) have been activated since they have CNs connected
to them (black lines), but there are also connections directly
to the sectors (cyan, green and magenta lines for the three
different sectors).
Note that according to the WINNER model, the channel
gain reduces considerably beyond the LOS distance. Hence,
the CNs connected to the RNs or the microcells are within a
range of ~500m (e.g. in Figure 3.a the CN in the bottom left
corner is served directly by the sector since it is out of the
microcell range). The algorithm chooses basestation/RN
positions close to the hotspots so that the channel quality is
high and hence, less bandwidth resources (RBs) are used for
the link.
Another possible solution (Figure 3.b) is also the final
outcome of the algorithm. Note that 3 out of 5 proposed
basestations are common for both solutions. However, the
second solution is preferred (i.e. it has better fitness
function) because the usage of microcells, reduces the cost
of the solution considerably, and also improves the overall
channel quality of the CNs since the interference from the
microcells is much lower. From the same figure can be
noticed that one of the basestations covers CN positions

almost 2Km away. This is not surprising, since the coverage
of the employed macrocells is ~3Km. The reason why the
coverage of the chosen cells in this test scenario appears
smaller, is that it is a capacity limited scenario i.e. the cell
range remains small in order to have better channel quality
and also the eNBs only have enough bandwidth resources
(RBs) to serve the CNs which are closer to them.

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
Algorithm solution

(a)
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
Algorithm solution

(b)
Figure 3: (a) A possible solution produced by the partially
combinatorial algorithm, (b) The final optimum solution.
V. CONCLUSIONS
The positioning optimization problem of heterogenous cells
with relay nodes for an LTE system with non-uniform
traffic is described in this paper and results that give useful
insights are produced with a partially combinatorial
optimization algorithm that exploits LTE characteristics.
The optimization analysis is based on coverage, capacity
and cost criteria.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The work in this paper has been co-financed by the
European Union (European Social Fund ESF) and Greek
national funds through the Operational Program Education
and Lifelong Learning of the National Strategic Reference
Framework (NSRF)-Research Funding Program: THALIS
NTUA, Novel Transmit and Design Techniques for
Broadband Wireless Networks (MIS 379489).The authors
would also like to acknowledge discussions with colleagues
in COST VISTA IC1102.
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