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174.07.01
Capacity planning for HetNets
January 2016
We are not a standards organization but partner with organizations that inform
and determine standards development. We are a carrier-led organization. This
means our operator members establish requirements that drive the activities
and outputs of our technical groups.
Today our members are driving solutions that include small cell/Wi-Fi
integration, SON evolution, virtualization of the small cell layer, driving mass
adoption via multi-operator neutral host, ensuring a common approach to
service APIs to drive commercialisation and the integration of small cells into
5G standards evolution.
The Small Cell Forum Release Program has now established business cases and
market drivers for all the main use cases. This document is part of
Release 7: HetNet and SON.
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The document is targeted at operators that wish to reflect on the possible alternatives
to managing capacity. It will also be instructive to those in supporting roles wishing to
better understand the choices and challenges posed by managing capacity in real
networks.
It does not cover the features and functions of small cell products and SON which will
be discussed in other Small Cell Forum documents.
This document expands on the topics explored within [SCF079] Deployment issues for
enterprise small cells [1]and [SCF096] Deployment issues for urban small cells [2].
Based on the established strategy, design objectives can then be set with
measurable targets in terms of end-user quality of experience (QoE), cost
and time.
Depending on a number of network dynamics (such as the existing macro
network, available spectrum, backhaul connectivity and site access), different
design considerations need to be taken into account in order to yield an
acceptable return on investment.
Realities and capabilities of the build phase need to be well understood and
integrated into the planning phase. Furthermore, large scale deployments
may in turn drive efficiencies of the build phase.
Monitoring capacity-related key performance indicator (KPI) fulfilment is an
important operational consideration in order to constantly address evolving
user requirements.
Tables
Table 31 Capacity planning sensitivities .......................................................... 7
Figures
Figure 11 Top used applications which are currently driving capacity ................... 1
Figure 21 Capacity management in the context of network strategy .................... 3
Figure 22 Typical capacity solutions and expected benefits ................................. 4
Figure 23 Capacity management and time horizons ........................................... 5
Figure 24 Example process flow of how capacity could be managed within an
operator ........................................................................................ 6
Figure 31 User expectations, service requirements and network capacity
enablers ........................................................................................ 8
Figure 41 Signal-to-noise ratio to throughput ................................................... 9
Figure 42 Sample calculation of cell capacity .................................................... 9
Figure 43 Average cell spectral efficiency before (top) and after (bottom)
HetNet design: macro (blue); urban small cell (magenta); residential
small cell (green) ...........................................................................10
Figure 44 International airport indoor demand .................................................11
Figure 45 North American outdoor demand .....................................................11
Figure 46 3GPP link curve .............................................................................12
It is now apparent that for selected small cell use cases in enterprise, such as
stadiums and shopping centres as well as most urban uses cases, the motivation for
operators to invest is turning from one of coverage to one of capacity [SCF061] [3].
This is because the uptake of end user demand, based on increasingly high-bandwidth
applications such as streaming video available at any location in the network, has
outstripped the offered capacity of coverage based solutions resulting in unacceptable
levels of quality of experience (QoE) for end users.
Figure 11 below indicates the top used applications in certain markets, which drive
the need for network capacity.
A key consideration for any operator is to understand the best Return on Investment
(ROI) for the choice of capacity solutions they have approved for deployment. The
typical types of solutions are shown in Figure 22 below for a standard 2G & 3G
operator. Extending the macro network is favored by the majority of operators as it
has relatively good ROI and is one of the businesses where usual processes are easier
to enact. The relatively recent inclusion of small cell solutions into the tool box has
been driven by the near saturation of practical limitations of macro extension for both
enterprise and urban deployment. Rather than trying to boil the ocean in exploring
all these capacity extension models, this paper focuses on the use of small cells in the
context of the wider heterogeneous network.
With the advent of small cells and their overall lower total cost of ownership (TCO), it
is now also possible for the operators strategy to be reviewed in light of the transient
nature of end user traffic. That is to indicate how the network should be dimensioned
to meet the needs of lunch time shoppers or late night bar goers. By itself, these use
cases may have not generated sufficient revenues to justify the expense of extending
the macro coverage, but now it could be a possibility to serve these customers
economically.
Whilst trying to anticipate the capacity demands at any particular location clearly the
end user demand to which the operator wishes to serve is a paramount consideration,
as the evolution of network capabilities increase so does end user expectation
For the application of urban small cells, it is therefore quite common for the faster
inner loop to trigger a solution based upon a pin point capacity issue within the current
network. This is likely to result in the small cell being used in a tactical or reactive
way, fixing a localized problem for the short term. This would result in a single small
blip above the green line in Figure 21 and because of this method of application the
urban small cells become scattered or pepper potted across an operators network.
This will undoubtedly lead to further build challenges once that capacity is used up and
the network needs to be revisited.
In contrast, a campaign initiated by the strategy department, with the aim and
foresight to build out to a larger capacity target may instruct the build organisation to
cluster or zone the urban small cells to meet the forecasted QoE demand in a
proactive way. This would require a longer timescale to plan and enact.
The situation for enterprise small cells is slightly different, as the decision for
deployment is often based upon a business case driven from localised end user
demand, such as an office or shopping centre. Where it comes to the technology
choice of small cell depends upon the economic coverage/capacity trade-offs against
different vendors attributes, which will often result in a large improvement to capacity
that will take some time to exhaust. With the shift from coverage to capacity the
expansion of the network may cause considerable disruption to the enterprise and the
role of the operator is to forecast correctly so that a properly dimensioned network
has suitable longevity in mind.
Figure 6 shows an example process flow for how capacity can be managed within an
operator. It is important to note that the exact steps, triggers and resulting
deployment can vary significantly from operator to operator. Key factors affecting the
steps would be competitive positioning aspiration (Figure 21), CAPEX budget &
control, spectrum assets & organizational construct (Figure 23 and Figure 24
(colored boxes)).
Figure 24 Example process flow of how capacity could be managed within an operator
The ultimate objective of any deployment is to maximize ROI for the operator. This
task requires careful planning and it is recommended to integrate the aspects of
HetNet deployment as illustrated by the equation below:
An effective design approach should jointly consider all these aspects so that there is a
high probability of the indented plan being realistic to deploy. The implications to the
build process can be extensive as the need to build new or reconfigure existing sites
would naturally flow from the output of the planning phase.
In some cases, the capacity solution will be dominated by a particular aspect or driven
by a specific target. For example, user QoE targets that have been defined based on
data-hungry applications (left of Figure 31) imply specific service requirements as
defined by 3GPP specifications (middle of Figure 31) and drive the need to increase
average network capacity (right of Figure 31).
The total available spectrum is often fixed and there are known enhancement
techniques such as interference cancellation, carrier aggregation or multiple-input and
multiple-output (MIMO) that could be utilized to improve capacity. Computing cell
spectral efficiency brings the benefits of the HetNet hierarchy to the evaluation of
network capacity at a given time.
It is beyond the scope of this document to illustrate all the possible aspects on Figure
24, and it is important to note that the considerations described below are relevant
to managing the whole HetNet scenario, not only the small cell layer.
Because of the strong impact on cost, QoE and QoS of the multiple options available
and the trade-offs between them (i.e., improving capacity at the expense of
coverage), the considerations below focus on root sensitivities associated to accurate
an early evaluation of capacity designs before committing to any build.
Figure 43 Average cell spectral efficiency before (top) and after (bottom) HetNet design:
macro (blue); urban small cell (magenta); residential small cell (green)
Specific technology and network considerations for the calculation of cell spectral
efficiency are discussed below, whilst more general design considerations that also
affect the network capacity calculation, such as the high dependency on data and
analyses resolution, are discussed in sections 4.2 and 4.3.
As discussed above, the capacity is highly sensitive to the user distribution. In reality,
this is non uniform as illustrated in Figure 44 and Figure 13.
For example, in Figure 44 the heat map indicates where passengers cluster (red),
such as gates and central restaurant areas. In Figure 45, we can see how the
clusters match commercial zones and highlight structure within open park areas and
around special venues.
This type of insight helps considerably with prioritization of the deployment and has a
direct effect on the accurate computation of network capacity.
Figure 46 shows the output of the planning process and where we would expect to
observe the higher coding schemes in a deployed network. For example, for an
application that requires 2 bps/Hz we can identify the cell edge target for this
particular service (visually represented by the light blue line MCS-8).
Figure 47 Illustration where higher modulation and coding schemes, MCS, will be achieved
Within a HetNet environment, the resolution of the base information for demand,
signal and interference calculations will determine how realistic is the final result and
has to be adapted to account for the characteristics of the smaller cell radius (Pete
Bernadin and Kanagalu Manoj IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Vol 49,
No. 5, 2000).
Figure 48 illustrates the impact of data resolution granularity for HetNet planning.
At 5m the details of the clutter are smoothed (in both the horizontal and vertical
plane) and limit the ability to express the benefits of targeting capacity with small cells
in specific areas.
The same applies to user distribution maps and as explained in section 4.1, these
inaccuracies impact directly the computation of network capacity.
Figure 48 Comparison of different clutter resolutions: (top left) satellite image; (top right)
25m clutter; (lower left) 1 m clutter; (lower right) 5m clutter
4.3 Scalability
As the link curve indicates, the possible throughput is higher with lower interference
levels but it is physically limited (Shannon). Following this and in light of Figure 31,
increasing network capacity relies on increasing the number of cells.
Capacity planning calculations benefit from broadening the analysis area to account
for the effect on interference of all relevant HetNet types and their specific technology,
traffic distribution and mobility characteristics.
Simultaneous evaluation of large sets of sites also facilitates build prioritization and a
balanced distribution of traffic as offered demand grows.
Capacity design within buildings or venues is not much different from the generic
capacity considerations described above, and radio characteristics (including cell
spectral efficiency) equally play a key part.
Typically, the amount of small cells needs to be calculated (or provided by the mobile
network operator) for the venue which can then be validated with an in-building
design tool to ensure that the capacity requirement can be appropriately met. The
following Figure 49 illustrates this process:
Run capacity
Define required analysis report
capacity for from in-
venue (number Create design building design
of channels, using in-building tool to validate
number of design tool if the design
sectors, small fulfills the
cells) required
capacity
The capacity for all the different technologies in a heterogeneous network needs to be
taken into account to validate the overall capacity per frequency and/or technology.
Important key metrics are the amount of data that can be supported (in GB/h or
Mbps) during the busy hour.
The build phase is the realization of the planning and design phase triggered by end
user demand. It is imperative that full e2e aspects are taken into consideration
already in the planning phase of the network evolution. Full TCO calculation needs to
be considered upfront to ensure the right solution or mix of solutions to be selected.
Bottlenecks for the build phase needs to be identified and considered for the specified
environment. Each environment and each urban area is unique and has its own
challenges to be addressed when it comes to deployment. TCO, time to market and
end user experience will dictate the final solution for the target area.
Typical barriers for outdoor small cell deployments in a dense urban area are site
acquisition, availability of high performance backhaul and availability of power. All
those bottlenecks will drive the cost and time for deployments. It is key to provide the
right solutions to overcome those bottlenecks as much as possible on an area-by-area
basis.
Minimize the Site Acquisition effort by negotiation bulk site licenses, design
and provide specific street furniture, provide solutions where the radio blends
into the environment, reusing city assets, provide solutions where the radio
head is minimized in size etc.
Minimize the time-to-market by proposing a number of candidates per
identified target to increase the likelihood for a fast license process
Different transport and power solutions needs to be considered for optimal
deployment [SCF049] [4], [SCF078] [5], [SCF095] [6], [SCF155] [7]
Acceptance of targeted end user performance is typically hard to measure
over time and requires a holistic approach to avoid long and costly
procedures. However, there are simple Mobile Network Testing solutions
available to check and verify end user performance in specific areas quickly
and economically and which can be used for network optimization. The macro
network, small cell network as well as available Wi-Fi network will together
provide the total capacity and performance KPI
For indoor venues and enterprises, the business model and requirements are different.
Site acquisition might not be as difficult since landlords might already advocate an
indoor solution in the target building. Backhaul and power availability are also higher
in a typical building. The main challenge for indoor venues and buildings from a build
perspective is rather the cabling and and providing cost efficient deployments in
various sized buildings.
Over time, the capacity requirements will drive the volume of small cells and sites
which in turn will drive the efficiency of the build phase. The site acquisition process,
as well as the actual deployment, will evolve over time. Backhaul will remain a
bottleneck and requires efficient handling. The build phase will continue to be very
dependent on the actual network architecture, network design and product
characteristics. New models, products, tools and documentation will have important
impact on the e2e deployment process.
When planning for increased capacity to meet the end user demand of good
application and hence QoE performance, it is recommended to be proactive and
planned not just for the immediate capacity need but also the expected long term
need. Since the build phase is cost driven per site visit and per configuration, it is
advisable to prepare for expected expansion by either adding extra small cells upfront
or to be hardware-ready for expansion on radio capacity, backhaul, front-haul, power
etc. This will make upcoming capacity expansion smoother, less costly and faster.
The disciplines that the term operate covers include central operations, field force,
and performance assurance. These topics were discussed in detail in [SCF079] and
[SCF096]. In this document, we shift our focus to aspects of performance assurance
that are associated with monitoring capacity usage, in order to continuously address
evolving requirements of the end-user and forecast network optimization or expansion
needs.
In that context, a key objective of the performance assurance strategy is the ability to
monitor a set of capacity-related KPIs across the mobile network, regardless of the
technology solution implemented in the radio access domain. Whether the service is
being delivered over a macro base station, a picocell, an in-building DAS system, a
small cell solution, or even operator managed Wi-Fi access points, the focus of
performance monitoring and reporting should be on the user quality of experience and
the timely identification of network and service bottlenecks.
3GPP technical specifications define several KPIs and performance measurements that
can be highly useful in monitoring capacity usage and demand.
Examples of such measurements typically fall within the Accessibility and Integrity
categories and include (ref TS 32.425):
These measurements can form the basis for monitoring capacity usage and user
performance with the goal of identifying congested cells and areas of growing capacity
demand in the network.
Proper capacity management requires advanced monitoring tools that can collect and
process performance measurements from the mobile network to report KPIs, but also
with the ability to perform data correlation to help identify bottlenecks due to capacity
constraints. For example, is the cause of reported throughput degradation due to radio
resource constraints, backhaul congestion, or poor radio conditions in that part of the
network? Having the ability to define rules that monitor traffic load versus offered
capacity and trigger notifications based on usage trends will be important for several
reasons. Such rules would help identify existing capacity limitations, but also help
predict future traffic growth so that operators can proactively plan for network
capacity expansion.
Performance Capacity
Monitoring Management
Dashboard and Planning
KPI
Network
This document has illustrated several methods to manage the shift from coverage
limited networks to capacity limited networks that is being driven by the increasingly
high-bandwidth end-user applications coupled with the need for full access at any
location.
This puts a large importance on proper capacity planning in order to meet rapidly
evolving user expectations. Summarized below are the key considerations highlighted
in this document:
Appropriate documentation throughout the steps described in this document are also
important in order to maintain a proper reference of what has been planned and
deployed; this will ensure maintainability as well as the ability to upgrade as needed
over time.
1 [SCF079] Small cell enterprise deployment issues, Small Cell Forum, Dec 2013
2 [SCF096] Deployment issues for urban small cells, Small Cell Forum, Feb 2014
3 [SCF061] Market drivers for enterprise small cells, Small Cell Forum, Feb 2014
4 [SCF049] Backhaul technologies for small cells, Small Cell Forum, Feb 2014
5 [SCF078] Backhaul for enterprise small cells: A topic brief, Small Cell Forum,
Feb 2014
6 [SCF095] Backhaul for urban small cells: a topic brief, Small Cell Forum,
Jun 2015
7 [SCF155] Backhaul for rural and remote small cells, Small Cell Forum, Jun 2015