Hybrid PtP/LTE Infrastructure Planning Focusing On CAPEX-based Migration

A ALBORG U NIVERSITY
N ETWORKS AND D ISTRIBUTED S YSTEMS

M ASTER T HESIS
Hybrid PtP/LTE Infrastructure planning focusing on CAPEX-based migration
Authors: Konstantinos PAPAEPTHIMIOU Dimitar M IHAYLOV Yonas T EFERA June 6, 2013
Supervisors: Jose G UTIERREZ Nuno P RATAS
School of Information and Communication Technology Networks and Distributed Systems Frederik Bajers Vej 7 Telefon +45 99 40 86 00 http://www.sict.aau.dk E-mail webinfo@es.aau.dk
Title: Hybrid PtP/LTE Infrastructure planning focusing on CAPEX-based migration Abstract: Project Period: P10, Spring semester 2013 Project group: 13gr1024 Group members: Yonas Yehualaeshet Tefera Dimitar Mihaylov Mihaylov Konstantinos Thomas Papaefthimiou
Supervisor: Jose Manuel Gutierrez Nuno Killerich Pratas
Number of copies: 6 Number of pages: 129 Appended documents: appendix + CD-ROM Finished: 26-06-13
Fiber, currently and for the next 40 years, is predicted to be the highest bandwidth offering wireline technology. Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a very promising wireless technology, already commercialized and currently targeting the mobile market. This project integrates both technologies into a hybrid broadband network infrastructure for providing xed connectivity, focusing on the network design part. Algorithms for minimizing the total Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) in both deployments are implemented. A way for migrating from LTE towards Fiber to the home (FTTH) within 8-year time interval, until 2020, is proposed, pointing out the areas where one technology is preferable over the other as well as how these two technologies can be combined to achieve a low-cost network deployment. Several programming tools have been used during the technical phase. The hybrid network architecture is designed, using as a test case Aalborg commune, Denmark.
The content of this report is freely available, but may only (with source indication) be published after agreement with the authors.
Preface
This report is made by a group of 4th semester students of the Network and Distributed Systems masters programme at Aalborg University. This report consists of four parts: Preliminary Analysis, Design and Implementation, Conclusion and Assessment, and Appendix. The Preliminary phase will contain an analysis of the project and the existing technologies that has an inuence on the current survey. The goal of this part is to end up with a complete description of what should be developed during the rest of the project. The Design and Implementation part will contain the development and implementation of the system described in the Preliminary Analysis. The Conclusion and Assessment is used to conclude on the entire project, as well as discussing what was achieved, and what should be included as a future work. Throughout the report external references will be displayed as numbers, an example of this is: [1]. If the report is read digitally these references will be interactive, and they can be used to jump directly to the reference in the reference list. The report also contains a glossary list where acronyms and abbreviations used in the report can be found. These glossaries will be interactive in the same manner as the references. As a part of the project is a CD. This CD contains Geographical information system (GIS) related data, the developed software and a digital copy of the report.
Yonas Tefera
Dimitar Mihaylov
Konstantinos Papaefthimiou
Table of contents
Introduction
12
I
2 3 4
Pre-analysis
Problem statement Previous related work Technologies 4.1 Fiber Optics Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2 Long Term Evolution(LTE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Network Planning 5.1 Fiber Access Network Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 LTE Cellular Network Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aalborg Commune 6.1 Information about Aalborg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2 Statistical information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
14
15 17 19 19 22 32 32 44 54 55 57
II
7
Design and Implementation

Access network Design 7.1 Planning of the ber access network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2 Planning of the xed LTE Access Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
61
62 62 77
Economic Analysis 92 8.1 Fiber access network cost Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 8.2 LTE Cellular Network Cost Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 8.3 Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
III
9
Conclusion and Future work

Conclusion
110
111 112
10 Future work
IV
Appendix
118
Acronyms
3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project. 1, 4, 16, 17 AGI Association for Geographic Information. 1 AON Active Optical Network. 1, 9, 24, 2729, 54 BCNIS Battleeld Command Network Integration and Simulation. 1 BS Base Station. 1, 4, 5, 21, 31, 3638, 43, 44, 48, 67, 6971, 7375, 7883, 9294, 97100, 103105, 107 CAD Computer Aided Design. 1 CAPEX Capital Expenditure. I, 1, 5, 79, 28, 34, 35, 44, 46, 85, 88, 89, 91, 92, 94, 100 CDF Cumulative Distribution Function. 1, 95 CDMA Code Division Multiple Access. 1, 14, 16 CN Communication Node. 1 CNP Center for Network Planning. 1, 9, 55 CO Central ofce. 1, 9, 10, 2429, 33, 34, 44, 48, 55, 56, 58, 59, 6167, 7981, 85, 8794, 97, 100, 101, 104, 105 CPE Customer Premises Equipment. 1, 24, 59 DBMS DataBase Management Systems. 1 DFS Depth First Search. 1, 85 DL Downlink. 1, 107 DN Distribution Node. 1 DSL Digital Subscriber Line. 1, 5, 7, 52, 93, 105 3
Acronyms
EDGE Enhanced Data for Global Evolution. 1, 16 EPON Ethernet Passive optical network. 1, 34 EU Europian Union. 1, 10 EV-DO Evolution Data Optimized. 1, 14 FDD Frequency division duplex. 1, 42, 107 FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access. 1 FTTC Fiber to the curb. 1, 5, 93 FTTH Fiber to the home. I, 1, 5, 710, 15, 26, 35, 52, 54, 59, 68, 85, 89, 93, 94, 103, 105 GIS Geographical information system. I, 1, 9, 31, 37, 5456, 74 GPON Gigabit Passive optical network. 1, 34 GPRS General Packet Radio Service. 1 GRASS Geographic Resources Analysis Support System. 1 GSM Global System for Mobile Communications. 1, 4, 16, 92 HDTV High Denition Television. 1, 4, 7 HSDPA High Speed Downlink Packet Access. 1 HSPA High Speed Packet Access. 1, 14, 1620, 22 HSUPA High Speed Uplink Packet Access. 1 ICT Information and Communications Technology. 1 IMS Internet Map Server. 1 IP Internet Protocol. 1, 4, 16, 19 ISI Information Scienses Institute. 1 ISP Internet service provider. 1, 7, 16, 25, 44 ISPs Internet service providers. 1 JTRS Joint Tactical Radio System. 1 KPI Key performance indicators. 1, 36 LAN Local Area Network. 1, 24, 30, 35, 55 LED Light emitting diode. 1, 11 LOS Line of Sight. 1, 38, 43 4
Acronyms
LP Linear Programming. 1 LTE Long Term Evolution. I, 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 1423, 36, 37, 4145, 48, 52, 70, 72, 78, 79, 8183, 85, 89, 9295, 97, 98, 100, 101, 103105, 107 MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output. 1, 16, 17, 21, 22, 37, 38, 69, 72 MN Main Node. 1 MPLS MultiProtocol label Switching. 1 MST Minimum Spanning Tree. 1, 58 NC Network Consumer. 1 NLOS None Line of Sight. 1, 38 NP Network planning. 1 NRA NetRule Agent. 1 NS Network Simulator. 1, 71 NT Network Termination point. 1, 10, 25, 32, 33, 47, 5457, 62, 6468, 7074, 78, 79, 81, 82, 85, 8798, 100, 103105 ODN Optical Distribution Network. 1 OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 1, 41 OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access. 1, 16, 20 OGC Open Geospatial Consortium. 1 OLT Optical line terminator. 1, 25, 58 ONT Optical network terminal. 1, 25 ONU Optical Network Unit. 1 OPEX Operational Expenditure. 1, 16, 34, 35, 45 OSPF Open Shortest Path First. 1 P2MP Point-to-Multi-Point. 1, 43 PCP Primary Concentration Point. 1, 10, 55, 56, 58, 59, 62, 6467, 85, 8891, 96, 97, 105 PL Path loss. 1, 37, 71 PON Passive optical network. 1, 9, 2429, 34, 54 PtP Point-To-Point. 1, 9, 10, 2426, 28, 29, 34, 43, 54, 59, 97 QoS Quality of Service. 1, 39 5
Acronyms
R&D Research and Development. 1 RF Radio Frequency. 1, 107 SC-FDMA Single-Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access. 1, 16, 20 SDTV Standard Denition Television. 1 SIMO Single Input Multiple Output. 1 SIS Spatial information System. 1 SMT Minimal Steiner Tree. 1, 9, 58 SNR Signal-noise-ratio. 1, 70, 72 SP Segment Point. 1, 3134, 56, 57, 63, 64, 66, 67, 81, 8791, 96, 97, 104 SPoF Single point of failure. 1, 105 SQoS Structural Quality of Service. 1 TCP Transmission Control Protocol. 1, 19 TDD Time division duplex. 1, 42, 107 TDMA Time Division Multiple Access. 1 telco Telecommunication company. 1, 5, 7, 10, 40, 47, 52, 84, 93, 94, 105 TSP Travelling Salesman Problem. 1 UE User Equipment. 1, 2022, 38, 107 UL uplink. 1, 107 UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service. 1, 4, 16, 20, 21, 43, 92, 93 USC University of South California. 1 VARs Value Added Resellers. 1 VAT4Net Visualization and Animation Tool for Network simulations. 1 VoIP Voice over IP. 1, 21 WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access. 1, 14, 16 WDM Wavelength division-multiplexing. 1, 34 WFS Web Feature Service. 1 WMS Web Map Service. 1
List of Figures
3.1 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9
PON vs. PtP CAPEX comparison in Lolland[11] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fiber optic cable [13] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pig tail [13] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Single mode ber structure [14] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cellular Network Technology Speed Comparison[16] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The evolution of LTE beyond LTE-A[19] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Comparison of current cellular technologies average spectral efciency Comparision of LTEs peak theoretical throughput . . . . . . . . .
18 20 20 20 22 24 26 26 27 30 31 33 34 34 35 37
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Comparision of LTEs Latency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Downlink spectral efciency of a Release 8 LTE FDD system with 4x2 SU-MIMO in the ITU-R deployment scenarios. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.10 Relative spectral efciency compared to 10MHz bandwidth in macro cells . . . . . . . . 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9 PON architecture [25] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Point-To-Point architecture [26] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cost breakdown for Point-to-Point[11] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Active Architecture [25] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Energy consumption in Access network [28] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
General wired planning method structure including Data preparation and planning algorithms[11] 38 General wired planning method structure including documentation presentation[11] . . . Aalborg commune drew in MapInfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Part of an optical ber network[11] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 40 41 7
LIST OF FIGURES
5.10 Deleting SPs of degree 2 and all the segments interconnecting them[11] . . . . . . . . . 5.11 Normalized network[11] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.12 FTTH price breakdown[30] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.13 OPEX cost breakdown for keeping the network up and running[30] . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.14 Network planning process steps[32] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.15 LTE dimensioning example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.16 LTE typical CAPEX breakdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.17 LTE typical OPEX breakdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 Aalborg area presented in terms of density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aalborg population by age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aalborg population projection by age and time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aalborg households with respect to size and time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Activity and Employment rates by age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Use of Internet for communication activities by communication activity, time, type, region, age category and employment status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Point-To-Point architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Data Preparation[11] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . k-means clustering: [47] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Planning Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
41 41 43 43 44 49 53 53 55 57 57 58 58 59 62 65 68 69
7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8 7.9
Digital representation of Aalborg area including road map, NT distribution and CO location 70 NT color notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Astar algorithm vs Euclidean Distance algorithm in allocating SPs to the nearest CO[11] Nodes not connected to the main node network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PCPs location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 71 71 73 74 74 77 83 83 85 87
7.10 PCPs with the corresponding to them NTs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.11 Applied A* algorithm in CO1 region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.12 Base Station Honeycomb Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.13 NT Cumulative Distribution in Aalborg commune . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.14 Possible BS Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.15 Flowchart for the Selection of BS Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.16 Digital representation of 95% coverage of Aalborg NTs achieved by 180 BSs . . . . . . 8
LIST OF FIGURES
7.17 Matplot digital representation of the area served by CO4 and the corresponding trenching paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.18 Digital representation of 95% coverage of Aalborg NTs achieved by 20 BSs . . . . . . . 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 8.9 Algorithm for calculating cost per NT(s) added to the ber access network . . . . . . . . Example of the algorithm run in a small part of south-west part of Aalborg area . . . . . Algorithm 2 for calculating cost per NT(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Average total cost per household in whole area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
88 90 94 96 98 99
Average LTE deployment Cost-per-User in Urban, Suburban and Rural . . . . . . . . . . 101 LTE users migration towards 35-50-65% FTTH coverage using Algorithm 1 . . . . . . 103 Cost CDF plot for designed Fiber and LTE access networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 K-means clustering inuence on calculation of shared NTs cost with Algorithm 2 . . . . 104 The decline in number of NTs connected to xed LTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
8.10 Rise in number of ber connected NTs in deployment phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 8.11 Migrating users between overlapping LTE BSs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 8.12 LTE users migration towards 35-50-65% FTTH coverage using algorithm 2 . . . . . . . 107 8.13 Migration of users from LTE to Fiber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 10.1 LTE FDD Frequency Bands and Channel Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 10.2 LTE TDD Frequency Bands and Channel Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 10.3 WINNER II Path Loss Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 10.4 Aalborg normalized table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 10.5 Node termination table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 10.6 Number of NTs connected to specic SP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 10.7 ID of each NT, SP, PCP, CO and their coordinates respectively as well as the length and the density of each NT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 10.8 SPs IDs and their coordinates respectively as well as the length and to which CO they are connected to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 10.9 NT, SP and BS IDs and their coordinates respectively as well as the CO they are connected to and how much it costs to connect each NT to the network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
List of Tables
4.1 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6
Characteristics of Different Cellular Networks[18] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Advantages and disadvantages of the different technologies[11] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Consumer Internet Trafc, 2011-2016 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Regional Fixed Broadband Penetration for Western Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Average monthly Download Volume of Fixed Broadband Subscriber . . . . . . . . . . . Terminal Catagories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Comparison of mentioned high data rate technologies for cellular backbone network implementation[43] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Number of SPs and NTs connected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Comparison between the total Fiber, Digging length and Costs using the Astar algorithm for the PtP architecture, with respect to each CO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Input parameters for PL calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Average Data Rate of Fixed Broadband Subscriber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Number of Subscribers per Site that can be served by the proposed LTE Technology Average Population density of Urban, Sub-urban and Rural Denmark . .
23 36 48 48 48 50 52 72 76 80 81 81 82 82 89 90
7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8 7.9 8.1 8.2 10
. . . . . . . . . .
NT density of Urban, Sub-urban and Rural Denmark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total number of BSs connected to each CO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total number of NTs connected to each BS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Average CAPEX per household for Rural, Suburban and Urban areas in Aalborg returned by the cost calculation algorithm 8.1 on page 94 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
97
Capex elements cost assumptions for LTE network design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
LIST OF TABLES
8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6
Total cost of LTE deployment in each CO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Total number of BSs in the three deployment phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Three Phase Theoretical* Coverage of Fiber and LTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Total CAPEX in Fiber, LTE and Hybrid architectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
11
Chapter
Introduction
In the last decade bandwidth requirements have grown tremendously. Bandwidth hungry services such as le sharing, video streaming, online gaming, High Denition Television (HDTV) and cloud-based services are becoming immensely popular and have been gaining popularity over the last few years. These combination of services continue to put pressure on the existing network infrastructure. As a result, a high-speed affordable broadband connectivity to Internet is essential, offering widely recognized economic and social benets. To achieve this in todays competitive markets, it is crucial for network operators to look for different wire-line and wireless high-speed broadband technologies, to ensure best user experience and provide service differentiation. The wire-line network is enabling a rapid convergence of Internet Protocol (IP) video, audio and data into completely new applications, while broadband wireless networks promise to provide access to these any time, anywhere. In recent years, a number of studies are carried out on hybrid optical-wireless access technologies[2][3][4], which are believed to be the main technologies for next generation networks. The ever growing need of higher bandwidth and offered capacity from the network side to meet users demands, gave birth to ever-increasing capacity wireless networks. Shortly after the establishment of 2G wireless networks in the market, launched on the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) standard, 3G networks were developed, mostly known from the Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS) standard, and 4G-LTE network has been already standardized and is taking a bigger market share. LTE describes the standardization work by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) to dene a new high-speed radio access method for mobile communication systems [5]. It is standardized so that it will be compatible with previous generation network infrastructures and can be established easily both as a green-eld 1 and brown-eld 2 network, utilizing already built Base Station (BS)s after undertaking specic modications. It also has sufcient capacity to support IP based streaming video and multimedia services to a large number of consumers simultaneously[6], with a quality that most will nd attractive. In addition, LTE offers signicantly higher capacity at a lower cost per bit[7], leading to improved commercial viability for operators and subscribers.
1 Installation
2 Upgrade/expansion
and conguration of a brand new network where no telecommunication infrastructure exists of already existing network infrastructure
12
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
In the xed wire-line access networks, the increasing demand of trafc due to bandwidth intensive services is putting pressure on the currently vast deployed traditional networks, like Digital Subscriber Line (DSL). As legacy, copper-based access networks continue their inevitable decline in deployment, Telecommunication company (telco)s are investing in bre access networks, which is a future proof technology. The strength of ber optical technology comes from its ability to displace electronics and simplify the network by combining network tiers[8]. The access networks for this technology have different deployment architectures, with FTTH as an all ber access network architecture or Fiber to the curb (FTTC) which can also be deployed in combination with copper. Even though FTTH has higher initial deployment cost, it has obvious advantages for the consumer because it provides a better performance than broadband services delivered primarily over copper networks and hybrid ones both now and in the foreseeable future. As data, voice and video gradually converge, wireless and wire-line networks are also converging. Currently, with its high capacity throughput achievable, LTE offers an option for deploying high speed cellular wireless networks even as an alternative for xed wire-line broadband networks, where there deployment is too expensive. This does not always mean that wireless networks are used only as an alternative to xed wire-line access networks, rather they are complementary for xed broadband. This kind of hybrid network is very much related to the nature of the area the network infrastructure is built, the competition from other telcos in the same region, the cost of investment and the risk of replacing xDSL if necessary, which is a temporary, though established solution for xed broadband connectivity. In this project a hybrid access network infrastructure is proposed , which integrates LTE(supported by a ber backhaul network) and FTTH architectures. The geographical area targeted for the deployment of this network is Aalborg Commune, Denmark. The main focus of this project is on the infrastructural part of the network, which starts with a general discussion about the access technologies that can be applied. Thereafter, LTE and FTTH networks, as standalone entities, are designed. An optimization algorithm for minimizing the total number of BSs, preceded by graph algorithms for the CAPEX minimization are used in the LTE and ber network design, respectively. Algorithms for calculating the total deployment cost, in terms of cost per user, are implemented for the ber case. Based on the obtained results, an economic analysis is done to compare and contrast which technology is preferable over the other and where to deploy it. Based on the future trafc estimations and the digital agenda targets set by the European commission[9], a time plan is set to show a migration of users towards FTTH in the upcoming years. Finally, all the obtained results are presented and a conclusion is made.
13
Part I
Pre-analysis
14
Chapter
Problem statement
The worldwide demand for higher speed access to current and new technological breakthroughs is ever increasing. Smart phone devices have already ooded the market and new bandwidth-hungry applications are continuously becoming available. HDTV is already a reality, and with promising technologies such as tele-medicine and tele-conference becoming part of ordinary peoples lives, the need for higher capacity is unquestionable. The downloading, streaming, entertainment and in general high speed connectivity to the worldwide web, all need the existence of high capacity network infrastructures. The current DSL infrastructure, which penetrates the market by far, has faced a difculty to cope with the forecasted users needs for high speed services in the following years due to the limited throughput it offers[10]. In order to meet such needs, Internet service provider (ISP)s and telcos are showing a tendency of migrating to future high-speed broadband network infrastructures. In mobile cellular networks, the trend shows a migration towards LTE technology. In wire-line networks, focus is mainly shown in VDSL, due to the already wide existing copper infrastructure in the last-mile access part, and in FTTH, mainly in developed countries. In ber connectivity, the initial deployment cost (CAPEX) is high, being an inhibiting factor for investment. However, as ber networks are designed with a lifespan of 30-40 years, and the users trafc demands will continue rising, FTTH will prove to be essential until the endusers premise. Facing this high cost expenditure of designing and implementing green-eld network infrastructures, most telcos are trying to exploit and reutilize their existing one, mainly wireless. Leasing parts of networks is a common practice for ISPs to keep up with the erce competition in the telecommunications market. In many cases, this nancial weakness from the operators side has an impact on the users quality of offered services. In that cases, hybrid network formations can prove to be a cost-wise solution. In this project we propose a hybrid broadband network planning process, comprising of both FTTH and LTE in the local loop. We exemplify how such process would occur in a real scenario, by applying it to Aalborg commune in Nordylland, Denmark.
How does a green-eld deployment of such a hybrid network looks like nowadays? 15
CHAPTER 2. PROBLEM STATEMENT
What is the total CAPEX of deploying such a network? How can migration from LTE towards FTTH be achieved until year 2020 and what is the price for that transition? Which areas (Rural, Suburban, Urban) are the most suitable for the technologies discussed from cost and deployment ease perspective? All these questions will be thoroughly discussed throughout the present project report, ending up with a proposed planning solution for the current test-case, also applicable in diverse geographical areas. f
16
Chapter
Previous related work

Related work on the network planning eld has been previously carried out by the same members of the group as part of the 9th semester MSc project work. The project, titled - PON and Point-to-Point FTTH based infrastructure planning in Lolland municipality - focused only on the ber optics technology for a green-eld implementation of the access network in the fourth biggest island of Denmark. Both projects pose some similarities on the planning process and that is the reason that specic parts included in the current report are referenced to the previous one. Similarly to the current project, provided GIS data corresponding to houses and the road network in Lolland municipality has been provided by the Center for Network Planning (CNP) of Aalborg University. The target has been set to deploy a green-eld FTTH network aiming at 100% coverage of premises in the area. Passive optical network (PON), Point-To-Point (PtP) and Active Optical Network (AON) architectures have been compared and the rst two have been implemented. CAPEX of the two deployed architectures has been calculated and the best cost-wise solution has been chosen as the preferable technology for deployment in the area. The same tools have been used to achieve the goal set. Minimal Steiner Tree (SMT) algorithm has been implemented by the group members during this time. Also, k-means clustering algorithm took its current form at this period of time. Looking back at this project, 100% of premises were connected to the access network using PtP topology, while 99.98% of them were connected using PON topology. SMT and A algorithms have been used to calculate the total trenching and ber length for connecting the end users to the access network in both architectures. The PON architecture in the area and trenching as well as deploying the ber cables from the Central ofce (CO) until the users premises using SMT algorithm, returned the least expensive solution. The results are summarized in gure 3.1 on the next page. We indicatively mention that the overall expenditure (CAPEX) calculated in the PON case using SMT algorithm, amounted to 425 Million crones with 722 thousand crones less than using A approach both for trenching and ber deployment in the area.
17
CHAPTER 3. PREVIOUS RELATED WORK
Figure 3.1: PON vs. PtP CAPEX comparison in Lolland[11] It should be stated here that not everything was reused in the current project the way it was developed then. In this project, PtP architecture has been chosen for the FTTH network deployment for reasons that will be later on justied. A big improvement has been achieved in the planning method of the architecture, that brings it closer to real-life implementation. In the 9th semester project, PtP has been deployed as a single dedicated link connecting the CO with the corresponding household. In other words, for two houses that are a few meters away from each other, one ber cable will start from the CO until the rst house and a second one will start from the same CO up until the second premise. However, this is not applicable in real case scenarios, especially when PtP topology is used to connect a high number of Network Termination point (NT)s with a CO. The way the topology is designed in the current project, which adjusts to real life implementation, is by bundling a certain number of ber cables that start from the CO up until a Primary Concentration Point (PCP), and are spliced from that point on to connect the end users premises. In that way, more accurate calculation of the total ber cost needed to add end users to the access network is achieved, as the price of the ber bundle differs from the price of a single ber cable pair (Uplink & Downlink) corresponding to an individual customer. The proposed nal hybrid network design now and in the upcoming years is regarded to be an improvement compared to a green-eld 100% FTTH deployment in an area. Currently, the cost needed for a pure ber access network deployment is very high for a telco. If the FTTH is deployed by a municipality or a government, it is most probably funded by the Europian Union (EU), turning it into a more feasible deployment case. It also makes sense that no telco intends to build a FTTH network targeting at connecting 100% of the residents in a big city, for the reason that customers penetration into the new built network will never reach that percentage. In reality, such a network is built stepwise, prioritizing dense city centres (cost-related decision) as well as certain end-users (industrial zones, big enterprises, school buildings, univercity campuses etc.). Areas where broadband infrastructure is absent are also acceptable candidate places for deployment. After the network is launched, it is expected to grow steadily to cover more regions depending on the customers needs, a fact that is taken into consideration in the current project.
18
Chapter
Technologies
4.1 Fiber Optics Technology
What is ber optics1 Fiber optics or optical ber is a light, exible, transparent ber usually made of glass, quartz or plastic, which act as a wave carrier for the light signal [12]. For a special application the ber can be made of sapphire, uoride or calcogenide. Due to their exibility they can be produced in any possible length. In order to achieve good light transmission some requirements should be fullled: Pure glass materials for the core should be used High transparency for the spectrum of interest Minimum optical dispersion is also required - meaning that when the light is reected it should keep its phase velocity (or the rate at which the phase of the wave propagates in space). Basically this parameter shows how light can be deformed while it is propagated trough the ber tube and it is the most important parameter that limits the bandwidth. How does it function Optical ber is usually made of Silicia [13]. The main parts of a ber can be seen on gure 4.1 on the next page. The transmission in ber optics is based on a light emitting device such as laser diode or Light emitting diode (LED). The idea is that the diode will emit a light and this light should ll up the ber tube. From technological point of view this is very hard to achieve because if we use a standard light bulb the light cannot be concentrated into the small ber tube, which will lead to a light dispersal. That is why a lot of companies use the so called pig tail, which is detached to the diode, as can be seen in gure 4.2 on the following page. The purpose of it is to assemble the light from the source in order to optimize the light coupling and reduce the dispersal.
1 The up-stated section 4.1 was obtained from report [11], which was written by the same group members that participated in writing the present MSc thesis
19
CHAPTER 4. TECHNOLOGIES
Figure 4.1: Fiber optic cable [13]
Figure 4.2: Pig tail [13]
When the transmission is initialized the light signal will start travelling through the already established glass tunnel. When the light reaches the cladding it will interact with it and at some point it will reach the core material boundary and it will reect back to the core. The core will use the light to transmit and the cladding ensures that the light will be kept in the inner cylinder (or the core). The core and the cladding are very sensitive and fragile so they should be protected by more layers of coating, which can be produced by different materials depending on the application and the environment where the ber will be used. The thinnest part of the ber is obviously the core. It reaches sizes around several m. In comparison with the core the cladding is few times bigger. The size of both is used as a classication of different type of bers. As it was already mentioned, ber has a big exibility so it can be designed in a way that the light can band around curves which will allow it to travel over longer distance without the need of being amplied. The light signal is constructed of binary code that emits on and off from which the content information of a given signal can be obtained. Different optical bers and cables The basic optical ber cable can be seen on gure 4.3. The optical ber is protected with a buffer enclosed in a buffer tube which allows exibility and bending. Around this tube a Kevlar yarn could be used to reduce the stress and the pressure of the ber. The outer layer or the so called outlet jacket is used to protect the cable from any moisture. The basic difference among all bers is the size of the core (or the so called caring area).
Figure 4.3: Single mode ber structure [14] 20
Single-mode ber - The cable carries only one wavelength and it has smaller core compared to the multi-mode ber. Also, it has higher bandwidth and less losses. The standard singlemode ber has size of usually 8-10 m. Because of its higher bandwidth, the single-mode ber is typically used when we want to transmit in a long distance, while the multi-mode ber is typically used for distances less than 2 km. Multi-mode ber - When using multi-mode ber we are capable of carrying multiple wavelengths independent of the ones that are carried by the other multi-mode bers in the same bundle. These large size bundles pose greater bandwidth. They allow hundreds of rays to travel simultaneously. What are the advantages of using ber optics In order to qualify the quality of the connection we should investigate how well the information travels from one point to another. Some of the main advantages and disadvantages based on the light that can be used as a carrier are [15]: Huge bandwidth for data transmission - Fiber optic operates at speeds in range of Gbps to Tbps (depending on the network layer, for example if we are on the access layer or on the backbone layer). Low attenuation when the light travels through the optical cable - The attenuation indicates how much power of the pulse has been lost (dB/km). This loss in the ber optics cable can vary between 0.2 to 3.0 dB/km, depending on how the ber is constructed, if there are many bending or splicing places, if it is a single or multi mode ber, etc. Range - The ber range transmission can be exceeded by the use of optical ampliers.Their placement varies between 300 meters and 40 kilometres, depending on the cable type that is used, the network and the wavelength. Material - Since ber is made of glass there is no electromagnetic interference that can degrade the propagation of the light signal. Fiber can be buried directly in most kinds of soil and will not be affected by any chemicals due to its glass structure What are the disadvantages of using ber optics While the light is propagating through the ber it will experience some losses: There is always loss due to reection when the light enters and exits surface of the ber. The core of the cable is made of ultra-pure low-loss glass. So when the light has to travel few thousand meters, the purity of the glass should be very high in order not to get losses or to minimize them as much as possible. Another loss may emerge when the ber is bent. This may lead the light to exit the core area. The smaller the bend radios is, the higher losses we experience.
21
4.2
4.2.1
Long Term Evolution(LTE)

Evolution of Cellular Wireless Technologies
The mobile networks of most operators are witnessing an unprecedented rise in data trafc, due to an increasing consumer demand to access bandwidth intensive content on-the-go and the proliferation of a large number of mobile devices such as smart-phones and tablets. This trend is exerting extremely high pressure on the capacity constrained operators networks. Faced with this challenge, wireless providers need to upgrade their network infrastructure in order to keep up with data trafc volumes and deliver bits more cost-effectively. This pressure leads to the change of different cellular mobile technologies in the past few years. The increasing proliferation of a range of Internet enabled mobile devices, added to the rising consumers needs to access rich content, has resulted in the explosion of data trafc exerting an unprecedented demand on the network of wireless operators. Bandwidth intensive applications, especially those based on video, expose the capacity bottlenecks and the gap which customers are increasingly facing between peak rates in perfect conditions and real everyday experience. It is, therefore, imperative for operators to ensure that the average users experience is not compromised, especially in high trafc areas. In order to enhance subscriber experience, prepare networks capacity for bandwidth hungry applications and reduce operational expenditure, operators are upgrading their networks. Multiple technology options can serve towards this direction, such as Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), HSPA+, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)2000, Evolution Data Optimized (EV-DO), WiMAX and LTE to choose from. The migration strategy of each operator is likely to be different and will be based on several factors such as the existing state of their networks, current and projected data demand, costs considerations and spectrum availability. However, given the various migration options, LTE seems to offer the most efcient, cost effective and future proof solution for operators. LTE has led service providers to re-think their current deployment strategies in order to provide the highest data speed throughout their networks. When compared to some of the major technologies currently in deployment, LTE is overwhelmingly the preferred ones due to the data-rate speeds achieved as shown in g 4.4.
Figure 4.4: Cellular Network Technology Speed Comparison[16] 22
The main objective of this project is to design a xed broadband network infrastructure in cost effective way. Currently, the preferred technology in xed networks is FTTH, which is a future proof technology. Fixed cellular broadband technology is also becoming a popular connectivity option by network providers, where wired networks are not reachable or too expensive to deploy. Out of the two technologies that are the core of this project, LTE is chosen as a xed cellular broadband technology for the reasons discussed in section 4.2.2 on the next page. Before going directly to the design of the network, it is good to briey discuss the evolution of cellular network technologies and detailed discussion of the technologies used here. Cellular broadband evolution[17] has taken the path shown in table 4.1.
2.5G EDGE Channel bandwidth (MHz) Duplexing Multiplexing 0.2 FDD TDMA cdma2000 1.25 FDD TDMA U M T S1 5 FDD
3G EV DO2 1.25 FDD HSDPA 5,10 FDD
3.5G EV-DV 1 .25, 3.75 FDD
4G LTE 5,10,15,20 FDD/TDD OFDM /SCFDMA QPSK/16QAM /64QAM CTC (UL)50 (DL)1003
WCDMA TD-CDMA
WCDMA TD-CDMA
Modulation
GMSK/ 8PSK C (UL)0.04 (DL)0.18
GMSK/ 8PSK CTC (UL)0.05 (DL)0.38
QPSK
QPSK/8PSK QPSK QPSK/8PSK /16QAM /16QAM /16QAM CTC (UL)1.8 (DL)3.1 CTC (UL)2 (DL)7.2 CTC (UL)1 (DL)3-5
Coding Maximum data rate (Mbps)
CTC (UL)0.14 (DL)0.38
Table 4.1: Characteristics of Different Cellular Networks[18]
Where, 1 - Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems R99 2 - Evolution data optimized (EV-DO) REV A 3 - No MIMO GMSK - Gaussian minimum shift keying QPSK - Quadrature phase shift keying QAM - Quadrature amplitude modulation TD-CDMA - Time division-synchronous CDMA OFDMA - Orthogonal frequency division multiple acces SC-FDMA: Single carrier frequency division multiple access CTC - Convolutional/Turbo coding 23
4.2.2
Long Term Evolution
LTE is a pure packet switched evolution of UMTS 3G technology that builds on GSM/Enhanced Data for Global Evolution (EDGE) and WCDMA/HSPA technologies to make higher data rates for cellular broadband services economically viable. The LTE approach is also suitable for replacing existing CDMA2000 networks. This evolved technology offers signicant advantages such as higher spectral efciency, lower cost of transmission per bit, higher throughput, and lower latency when compared to existing wireless network technologies. It is also backward compatible with the CDMA family of technologies. Furthermore, by deploying LTE, ISPs can signicantly improve operational efciency and reduce Operational Expenditure (OPEX). LTE delivers a performance superior to that of existing 3GPP networks based on HSPA technology. Specially with the evolution and standardization its going through, clearly it has a hugh potential for the future ever increasing data trafc in mobile networks. The standardization has been going on for a while by 3GPP, with the rst standard frozen out in 2008,in 3GPP release 8. The standardization and evolution has progressed with new releases in LTE-Advanced and now with LTE-Beyond as shown in gure 4.5.
Figure 4.5: The evolution of LTE beyond LTE-A[19] The main characteristic summary of the different LTE releases are[20]: 3GPP Release 8 Freeze Date 2008 Release 8 introduced LTE for the rst time, with a completely new radio interface and core network, enabling substantially improved data performance compared with previous systems. Highlights included: up to 300Mbit/s downlink and 75Mbit/s uplink latency down to 10ms implementation in bandwidths of 1.4, 3 ,5 , 10, 15 or 20MHz, to allow for different deployment scenarios Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) downlink, Single-Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) uplink and Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antennas. at radio network architecture, with no equivalent to the GSM BSC or UMTS RNC, and functionality distributed among the base stations (eNodeBs). all IP core network, the System Architecture Evolution (SAE). 3GPP Release 9 Freeze Date 2009 Release 9 brought a number of renements to features introduced in Release 8, along with new developments to the network architecture and new service features. These included: 24
introduction of LTE femtocells in the form of the Home eNodeB (HeNB) self organising network (SON) features, such as optimisation of the random access channel evolved multimedia broadcast and multicast service (eMBMS) for the efcient delivery of the same multimedia content to multiple destinations location services (LCS) to pinpoint the location of a mobile device. 3GPP Release 10 Freeze Date 2011 Release 10 provided a substantial uplift to the capacity and throughput of the LTE system and also took steps to improve the system performance for mobile devices located at some distance from a base station. Notable features included: up to 3Gbit/s downlink and 1.5Gbit/s uplink carrier aggregation (CA), allowing the combination of up to ve separate carriers to enable bandwidths up to 100MHz higher order MIMO antenna congurations up to 8x8 downlink and 4x4 uplink relay nodes to support Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets) containing a wide variety of cell sizes enhanced inter-cell interference coordination (eICIC) to improve performance towards the edge of cells. 3GPP Release 11 Freeze Date 2013 Release 11 will build on the platform of Release 10 with a number of renements to existing capabilities, including: enhancements to Carrier Aggregation, MIMO, relay nodes and eICIC introduction of new frequency bands coordinated multipoint transmission and reception to enable simultaneous communication with multiple cells advanced receivers. 3GPP Release 12 Freeze Date 2014 Potential features for Release 12 were discussed at a 3GPP workshop in Slovenia in June 2012. A strong requirement was the need to support the rapid increase in mobile data usage, but other items included the efcient support of diverse applications while ensuring a high quality user experience. Some of the candidates for Release 12 included: enhanced small cells for LTE, introducing a number of features to improve the support of HetNets inter-site carrier aggregation, to mix and match the capabilities and backhaul of adjacent cells new antenna techniques and advanced receivers to maximise the potential of large cells interworking between LTE and WiFi or HSPDA further developments of previous technologies. Current commercial LTE deployments are based on 3GPP Release 8 and Release 9 that is, the rst releases of the LTE technical specications[19]. As a result the analysis and LTE parameters used in this project are taken from lte relese 8. The performance advantages of LTE Release 8 in 3GPP are dened relative to HSPA Release 6. The main performance advantages are[21][22]: Spectral Efciency : LTEs spectral efciency is two to four times more than HSPA Release 6. LTEs greater spectral efciency allows operators to support increased numbers of customers within their existing and 25
future spectrum allocations, with a reduced cost of delivery per bit (Spectral Efciency is discussed in detail on section 4.2.2.2 on page 30). Figure 4.6 shows the comparison of LTE with HSPA and WiMAX for different antenna conguration scenarios. As clearly seen from the results, LTE has a big advantage over the two currently competing technologies.
Figure 4.6: Comparison of current cellular technologies average spectral efciency [22] Peak rate exceeds 100 Mbps in the downlink and 50 Mbps in the uplink: Enhanced air interface allows increased data rates, with physical layer downlink peak data rates are extended up to a theoretical maximum of 300 Mbit/s per 20 MHz of spectrum.
Figure 4.7: Comparision of LTEs peak theoretical throughput [22] 26
Similarly, LTE theoretical uplink rates can reach 75 Mbit/s per 20 MHz of spectrum, with theoretical support for at least 200 active users per cell in 5 MHz[23]. The comparison of theoretical peak downlink and uplink values for LTE with different antennas and bandwidth conguration are shown in gure 4.7 on the facing page. Enables a Round Trip Time (RTT) of <10 ms: By reducing round-trip times to 10ms or even less (compared with 40 - 50ms for HSPA), LTE delivers a more responsive user experience. This permits interactive, real-time services such as high-quality audio/video conferencing and multi-player gaming. Figure 4.8 shows the decrease in latency by LTE when compared with 3G technology.
Figure 4.8: Comparision of LTEs Latency [22] Packet switched optimized: One of the most signicant features of LTE is it is transition to a at, all-IP based core network with a simplied architecture and open interfaces. It is based on Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/IP protocols like the vast majority of todays xed data networks thus providing PClike services including voice, video, rich media and messaging. This migration to an all-packet architecture also enables improved inter-working with other xed and wireless communication networks. Flexible radio planning: LTE can deliver optimum performance in a cell size of up to 5 km. It is still capable of delivering effective performance in cell sizes of up to 30 km radius, with more limited performance available in cell sizes up to 100 km radius[21]. High level of mobility and security: LTE is required to support communication with terminals moving at speeds of up to 350 km/h, or even up to 500 km/h depending on the frequency band. The primary scenario for operation at such high speeds is usage on high-speed trains a scenario which is increasing in importance across the world as the number of high-speed rail lines increases and train operators aim to offer an attractive 27
working environment to their passengers. These requirements mean that handover between cells has to be possible without interruption in other words, with imperceptible delay and packet loss for voice calls, and with reliable and secure transmission for data services. Optimized terminal power efciency: A key consideration for competitive deployment of LTE is the availability of low-cost terminals with long battery life, both in stand-by and during activity. Therefore, low terminal complexity has been taken into account, as well as designing the system wherever possible to support low terminal power consumption. Frequency exibility with allocations from below 1.5 MHz up to 20 MHz: The possible channel bandwidths used by LTE are 1.5, 3, 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz. This exible bandwidth is desirable to take advantage of the diverse spectrum assets: refarming typically requires a narrow-band option below 5 MHz while the new spectrum allocations could take advantage of a wide band option of data rates by using upto 20 MHz. 4.2.2.1 Factors Contributing to LTE System Capacity[21]
LTEs system capacity is much higher than the currently existing 3GPP technologies. This increase in capacity is achieved by some technological factors included which didnt exist in other 3GPP technologies or improved. The main difference in both downlink and uplink between LTE and UMTS Release 6 (HSPA) is that the LTE system provides orthogonal resource allocation in the frequency domain, which enables frequency-domain multi-user diversity gain to be exploited. In addition, the LTE downlink supports transmission with up to two or four spatial layers via multiple antennas, which enhances the peak data rate, the cell average and cell edge spectral efciencies. The key features are discussed in more detail below: Multiple Access Techniques: Downlink: LTE downlink is based on OFDMA which enables exible channel-dependent multi-user resource allocation in both the frequency and time domains. This leads to improved multi-user diversity gain. There are two truly remarkable aspects of using OFDMA. First, each symbol is preceded by a cyclic prex (CP), which is used to effectively eliminate Inter Spacial Interference(ISI). Second, the sub-carriers are very tightly spaced to make efcient use of available bandwidth, yet there is virtually no interference among adjacent sub-carriers (Inter Carrier Interference, or ICI). Uplink: LTE uplink is based on the SC-FDMA scheme which enables to achieve frequencydomain intra-cell orthogonality among User Equipment (UE) while also maintaining a low Peak-to-Average Power Ratio which is important for maximizing data rates at the cell edge. In addition, LTE uplink facilitates multi-user scheduling and rate adaptation strategies to enhance spectral efciency. Frequency Reuse and Interference Management: LTE is designed to operate with a frequency reuse factor to maximize the spectral efciency. In such a system, however, data and control channels can experience a signicant level of interference from neighbour cells, which reduces the achievable spectral efciency, especially at the cell edge. LTE therefore supports various techniques to manage and mitigate inter-cell interference. 28
Multiple Antenna Technology: The LTE Physical layer can optionally exploit multiple transceivers at both the base-station and UE in order to enhance link robustness and increase data rates for the LTE downlink. This scheme is called a MIMO conguration. The use of multiple antenna technology allows the exploitation of the spatial-domain as another new dimension. This becomes essential in the quest for higher spectral efciencies. Multiple antennas can be used in a variety of ways, mainly based on three fundamental principles: Diversity gain: Use of the spatial diversity provided by the multiple antennas to improve the robustness of the transmission against multi-path fading. Normal two-branch diversity reception or transmission has the benet of producing two copies of the same signal for reception, which with a suitable signal combining technique reduces fading variation. For example, a 2Tx * 2Rx antenna transmission results in reception of four signal replicas, with the corresponding additional reduction in fading. Array gain: Concentration of energy in one or more given directions via pre-coding or beamforming. This also allows multiple users located in different directions to be served simultaneously. This requires closely spaced antennas, unlike the diversity schemes which require at least a few wavelength antenna spacing. Spatial multiplexing gain: Transmission of multiple signal streams to a single user on multiple spatial layers created by combinations of the available antennas. For example, with 2Tx * 2Rx spatial multiplexing the idea is to transmit two parallel information streams over the same bandwidth, hence theoretically doubling the data rate and spectral efciency. In uplink, spatial multiplexing is not supported for a single UE, but two different UEs are allowed to transmit at the same time; this is called multi-user-MIMO. Semi-Persistent Scheduling: The scheduler in the BS distributes the available radio resources in one cell among the UEs, and among the radio bearers of each UE. The details of the scheduling algorithm are left to the BS implementation, but the signalling to support the scheduling is standardized. The usual mode of scheduling is dynamic scheduling, by means of downlink assignment messages for the allocation of downlink transmission resources and uplink grant messages for the allocation of uplink transmission resources; these are valid for specic single subframes. LTE uses Semi-Persistent Scheduling (SPS) which alleviate pressure from the limited downlink control channel capacity by replacing dynamic scheduling signalling with semi-static signalling. This allows a larger number of UEs to be scheduled, which is especially benecial for services such as Voice over IP (VoIP) for which the data packets are small, periodic and semi-static in size. Short Subframe Duration and Low Round Trip Time: LTE has a subframe duration of 1 ms for both uplink and downlink shorter than the 2 ms subframe duration of UMTS. This leads to reduced latency (with a shorter Round Trip Time (RTT)) and more exible multi-user scheduling in the time domain. Advanced Receivers: Advanced receivers provide an implementation method to enhance further the capacity of LTE system. Suitable for both uplink and downlink, such receivers compute the signal combining weights by exploiting statistical knowledge, such as the covariance matrix, of the inter-cell interference. This ability of the receivers to suppress interference using the statistics improves performance. 29
Layer 1 and Layer 2 Overhead: Any part of the time-frequency transmission resources that are not used directly for data transmission constitutes an overhead when considering the overall spectral efciency. One design criterion for LTE was to minimize these overheads while achieving high system performance and exibility.
4.2.2.2
Spectral Efciency[24][21]
LTE technology is spectrally efcient, hence the number of bits per second over a xed bandwidth is higher than former technologies and as a result, if a reasonable error rate coding is taken into account , a peak data rate can be reached that is more realistic for commercial deployment. These capacity improvements over other 3GPP technologies is the key for achieving the efciencies necessary to reach the mass market and reducing the cost per bit for the operator. Comparing the downlink Cell edge spectral efciency and average spectral efciency of LTE with HSPA for different scenarios, LTE has a clear advantage over other technologies. This substantial gain is mainly attributable to frequency domain multi-user scheduling and MIMO transmission. Figure 4.9 shows the downlink average and cell-edge spectral efciencies for Release 8 LTE FDD 4x2 downlink SU-MIMO transmission in the ITU-R deployment scenarios.Vertical antenna tilting is assumed at the eNodeB, with tilt angles of 12, 12 and 6 degrees in the urban microcell, urban macrocell, and rural macrocell scenarios respectively. The antenna separation is assumed to be four wavelengths at the eNodeB and half a wavelength at the UE. The higher performance in the indoor hotspot scenario compared with the others can be attributed to the isolated cell environment with low inter-cell interference; this is especially advantageous for high-order MIMO spatial multiplexing.
Figure 4.9: Downlink spectral efciency of a Release 8 LTE FDD system with 4x2 SU-MIMO in the ITU-R deployment scenarios. [21] 30
4.2.2.3
Spectral Efciency as a Function of LTE Bandwidth[24]
Most LTE system simulations assume 10MHz bandwidth. The system bandwidth has some impact on the efciency mainly due to the following factors: The frequency domain scheduling gain is higher with larger bandwidth since there is more freedom for the scheduler to optimize the transmission. For 1.4MHz bandwidth the frequency domain scheduling gain is very low since the whole channel bandwidth likely has at fading. The relative overhead from common channels and control channel is lower with larger bandwidths. The relative guard band is higher with a 1.4MHz bandwidth: six resource blocks at 180 kHz equal to 1.08MHz corresponding to 77% utilization compared to the channel spacing of 1.4 MHz. The utilization is 90% for other bandwidths. The relative efciency is quite similar for the bandwidths of 5 to 20MHz while there is a 15% difference for 3 MHz. The efciency with 1.4MHz bandwidth is approximately 35-40% lower than for 10 MHz. The typical downlink cell throughput for 20MHz is 1.74 bps/Hz/cell * 20MHz = 35 Mbps, while for 1.4MHz the cell throughput is 1.74 bps/Hz/cell * 60% * 1.4MHz = 1.5Mbps. The results for relative spectral efciency of bandwidths compared to 10MHz bandwidth in macro cells is shown in Figure 4.10.
Figure 4.10: Relative spectral efciency compared to 10MHz bandwidth in macro cells [24] The conclusion is that LTE should be deployed using as large bandwidth as possible. Main motivations are to maximize the LTE data rates as well as optimize the spectral efciency. The narrowband options are still useful for refarming purposes in case initial allocation of larger bandwidth is not possible. The shift towards LTE is facilitated by all the advantages it has over other cellular technologies. As a result, it is currently being deployed and built-out in all regions and continues to lead the way in the future. 31
Chapter
Network Planning
5.1 Fiber Access Network Planning
At the current project ber will be deployed in the access part of the network, or else, in the local loop. We assume that the Local Area Network (LAN) extends from the COs until the users premises. COs will not be interconnected with each other with a specic topology, such as ring or double ring. Hence, the network of COs does not belong to the backhaul network. In this chapter, three popular access architectures will be presented and a comparison between them will follow. Also, a owchart will be given that determines the basic parameters that must be taken into account and actions that must be carried out for a successful network design. Finally, some economic elements regarding the cost expenditure of ber will close up the chapter 1 .
5.1.1
Optical access network architectures
The most commonly used architectures in the access network are PON, PtP and AON. None of them is preferable over the other as basic differences concerning the topological formation exist. The choice of the most suitable one is related to the geographical area, scenario, problem scale and nal target set.
5.1.1.1
Passive Optical Network
PON topology describes a single ber separated into multiple strands. PON gets its name from the fact that no active electronics like power supply or any other power equipment is used within the access network (without taking into account equipment placed inside the CO and Customer Premises Equipment (CPE)). Instead, passive optical splitters are used to divide the bandwidth between the end users [25]. Figure 5.1 on the next page shows the PON architecture and that the maximum coverage distance between the CO and the end user should be in range between 10 and 20 kilometres, which also depends on the number of splits (for example this range could be exceeded with the use of optical ampliers).
1 The down-stated section 5.1.1 was obtained from report [11], which was written by the same group members that participated in writing the following MSc thesis
32
CHAPTER 5. NETWORK PLANNING
The main components in the PON architecture are:
Figure 5.1: PON architecture [25]
CO - It is a physical building located in an area and contains the inside plant equipment needed to establish a ber optical network. Optical line terminator (OLT) - The OLT is placed inside the CO. Its two main functions are: To convert the electrical signals used by the ISP equipment to send information over the network, into a light used by the ber optic infrastructure and in this case the PON. To synchronize the multiplexing between the devices on the other side of the ber optic cable which are called Optical network terminal (ONT)s. Splitter - A passive component, which connects the CO with the NTs. The functionality of this device is to split equally the bandwidth between the NTs connected to it. ONT - A device that connects carriers network with the subscribers premises wiring. Both of these devices, OLT and ONT, require a power source.
5.1.1.2
Point-to-Point Optical Network
In PtP topology a direct and dedicated link between two end-point devices exist (the CO and the end user). This architecture is highly scalable, upgradeable and service transparent (meaning that it can provide service regardless of the other users in the network) due to its exibility. The PtP architecture provides more bandwidth per end subscriber in comparison with the other shared networks and also dedicated broadband speed up to 1Gbps per subscriber. 33
Figure 5.2: Point-To-Point architecture [26]
In a PtP network deployment, N number of bers (this number depends on how many subscribers we will have in the network) and 2xN number of transceivers are needed to provide certain service to N number of end-users, as it can be seen on gure 5.2. Each new subscriber can be added without affecting the rest connected to the network. This type of connection is also known as pay as you grow. One of the drawbacks in this technology is that the increasing number of users will result into a higher number of bers into the CO, which will lead to an increase in the equipment needed to support the needs of each subscriber. The PtP architecture is way more suitable in comparison with the already mentioned PON architecture in the sense that each individual user can be migrated to more powerful service without affecting the rest of the users already connected to the CO. This fact applies for either home residence or business users, which makes this architecture very exible for future proof solutions as it also provides virtually unlimited bandwidth per subscriber. Based on the statistical data from [27], the civil work costs the most in the FTTH deployment of the network and this is common for the PtP and PON architecture. Figure 5.3 shows the cost breakdown for PtP architecture. PtP architecture also supports the so called future-poof hybrid deployment, which is a mixture between the FTTH and FTTC with a copper (UTP) connection to each subscriber.
Figure 5.3: Cost breakdown for Point-to-Point[11] 34
5.1.1.3
Active Optical Network
AON got its name from the active elements included in the architecture. As it can be seen in gure 5.4, the active network looks quite similar and basically follows the same functionality pattern like the PON with a few main differences:
Figure 5.4: Active Architecture [25]
The non-controlled passive optical splitter is substituted with a powered ethernet switch Instead of separating the bandwidth between the users in the network, full bi-directional bandwidth spectrum to everyone will be provided. The maximum distance separating the CO from the end users is increased to 80 kilometres and does not depend on the total number of subscribers that will be connected to the network. As it can be seen on gure 5.4, the Ethernet switch may be located 70km away from the CO and the distance between the switch and the end-users can reach a distance up to 10 km. The limitation factor in this case comes from the number of subscribers connected to the switch (with respect to the capacity of the switch) and not with the infrastructure, like in the PON architecture. The most common speed that the AON can provide is 100Mbps in downstream and upstream direction for a home residence and up to 1Gbps for the business sector.
35
5.1.1.4
Analysis on the three architectures
Selecting one out of the three topologies to implement is quite tricky issue, as trade-offs exist that turn an advantage in one to a drawback in another. The primary objective must be clearly set by the network designer, in most cases cost minimization, for the topological choice to suit best to the needs and geographical scenario. The following table 5.1 shows the main advantages and disadvantages of the discussed three architectures. The scale that it was used is from 1 to 3, where 1 is low and 3 is high. Qualication Active Point-to-Point PON characteristics Network Network Security 1 2 3 Cost 1 2 3 Redundancy 1 2 3 Scalability 1 1 3 Detect and x time 1 2 3 Energy efciency 1 2 3 Table 5.1: Advantages and disadvantages of the different technologies[11]
As it can be seen from the table 5.1, PtP will provide us with the best security, redundancy, scalability, detect and x time and energy efciency among the rest, but the cost of the architecture, in most cases, is higher than the PON and the active network. PON architecture appears to be the cheapest one as the equipment needed to install for providing services to the end-users is passive compared to the AON which is active and consequently, more expensive. Especially in rural and suburban areas, the CAPEX tends to be lower for the PON architecture while in dense populated areas, the cost difference converges more to the PtP. Also, the total ber length deployed in the trenches in the PON and AON networks is smaller than the PtP network, especially in the case where the optical splitters are optimally located in a block of households with regards to minimum connection distance and their capacity is fully utilized. Another important issue is scalability. Imagine the case in which for a certain block of houses, a PON or AON architecture is deployed to provide service to the end-users. If an 1x32 optical splitter is used and all splitters ports are connected to 32 households in this block, then a construction of a new building very close to the cabinet that requires connectivity will raise difculties in doing so, as the capacity of the installed splitter is fully utilized. In that case, a strand of ber should be pulled all the way up to the streaming splitter or the network should require redesign in order to be able to service a higher number of end-users in the new building. Additional trenching may also be required. An easy solution to this would be to replace the existing 1x32 splitter with a bigger capacity one, for example 1x64 splitter. That will lead to a certain down period and bandwidth reduction for the already 32 connected end-users. Scalability also refers to the easiness of upgrading the services delivered to one or more individual endusers, while keeping the previous service for the rest. In the PtP architecture this can be seamlessly done by upgrading the capacity of the ber links that connect the CO with the respective end-users, while in the other two architectures will require re-trenching and replacement of the link that connects the CO to the optical splitter to increase the bandwidth.
36
Its obvious that PtP is the most redundant architecture compared to the other two. If for some reason a failure occurs to the ber that connects the CO to the optical splitter, then a down period will last for the end-users connected to this splitter until connectivity is restored. On the other hand, if this failure occurs to one or more of the bers connecting directly the CO with one or two households, it will affect only these end-users. Security is better achieved in PtP and AON architectures due to the active nature of the equipment used to connect the end-users. In the PtP case, due to the fact that each end-user is served by a dedicated line it is easier to detect a security breach. This active nature affects up to a point the time it takes to detect and restore a failure. Especially, in case the problem is related to software conguration issues, the restoration process can be completed from distance without the physical presence of a technician. From energy point of view, PtP after 300Mbps is the least energy consuming architecture. Figure 5.5 shows the energy consumption in ber access networks with respect to the average access rates (Mbps) and energy per bit. As the average access rate increases, the amount of energy per bit decreases. Thats the reason why nowadays PON architecture is, in many times, preferable over PtP topology.
Figure 5.5: Energy consumption in Access network [28]
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5.1.2
Planning process
The methodology a network engineer uses to implement the LAN ber planning is a very important factor in the network modelling process. A rational structuring of the modelling process into successive implementation phases should be done that will help the designer carry out the technical task efciently, with regards to low computational time and proper output. A general ber planning scheme consists of three basic phases, as can be seen in gure 5.7 on the next page:
Figure 5.6: General wired planning method structure including Data preparation and planning algorithms[11] 38
Figure 5.7: General wired planning method structure including documentation presentation[11]
5.1.2.1
Data Preparation
Data preparation is the initial phase of the planning method. It includes gathering of GIS data for traces and node locations placed on the specic geographical area, storing all these data in a database so as to enable easier manipulation of them and reducing data dimensionality by normalizing them. Available GIS data is essential for an easier, faster and more accurate planning of a ber network in any geographical area by digitizing the whole planning procedure. This geographical information is obtained and handled through computer based GIS applications. For wired network planning purposes, 2D GIS data is adequate for the graphical representation of important elements that describe an area, such as roads, railway trails or agriculture elds. 3D GIS is preferable in case wireless infrastructure exists in the area and there is a need to provide the highest population coverage using the minimum number of BSs.2 . Usually, municipalities retain GIS mapping information of their region. In that way, it is rather easy and in most cases quite cheap to seek such information. Also, private companies exist that maintain GIS data important for the planning process, however they are usually offering it at a high price. The most interesting information someone could extract from this data is the road network. Especially when it comes to design a network in a big city with dense building infrastructure, roads are the main path for the bers to pass by and interconnect all the desired communication nodes. In rural areas, GIS data is still important although the whole process becomes less complex as the digging traces for the ber to pass can be picked more loosely and closer to the designer needs for better optimization of the nal result. This fact arises from the reduced cost of digging traces in rural areas compared to urban ones, as optimization can be succeeded more efciently through agriculture elds, for example, rather than through industrial areas. A digital road map can be viewed as an approximation to the trace level for a potential optical ber ICT infrastructure development [29]. A digital road map is represented through tables which contain most of the road map information in digital form, such as road names and unique identities related to individual road segments. Figure 5.8 on the following page presents the digital road network of Aalborg commune, which is the subject of the current project research. Using GIS tools, such as Mapinfo, roads can be segmented to smaller parts, points that form the start and ending of every segment (Segment Point (SP)s) can be created, more ids can be added.
2 The
3D GIS data was not used in the present project due the fact that Aalborg commune has almost at relief
39
Figure 5.8: Aalborg commune drew in MapInfo
Availability of households and buildings location is signicant for the whole planning process. Data regarding NTs, such as real coordinates, address and post district, are also available in every municipality. Databases are important for handling huge amount of spatial data in tables. This data enables the network designers to view the mapping of the road network and the end-users buildings distribution and exact location at the region where an optical ber network is under construction. It is important that every table stored in the database is well structured. In that way, the task of reducing the total amount of this data, also known as normalization, as well as seeking desired data through a high quantity of tables entries becomes much more efcient in terms of time consumption. Consistent data preservation in databases facilitates the network planning process in its total. Normalization of the road network refers to the minimization of the initial networks dimensionality before applying graph algorithms to achieve the desired network topological structure. It is a very important process as it leads to a huge drop in computational time needed from the algorithms applied in the Planning Algorithms phase 2. The data points that should be normalized include SP nodes of degree 1 or 2 that do not serve any NT. After nding out the data points that satisfy this condition, they should be deleted from the respective tables stored in the database. Figure 5.9 on the next page shows an example of a small part of an optical ber network. Several SPs of different degree value are connected with each 40
other and houses. The three dots sign in the gure depict the expansion of the network beyond this region. In gure 5.10, SPs B, D, E, G and I as well as all consecutive segments linking them are marked. All these segments and SPs should be deleted. Figure 5.11 presents the optical network after the completion of the normalization process. Segment AC replaced segments AB and BC and a new lengthAC = 14m was assigned to it, derived from the summation of lengthAB = 8m and lengthBC = 8m = 6m. Following the same principle, segment CF of lengthCF = 20m and FJ of lengthF J = 15m were created. Segment FG is just deleted, as SP G is not a connection point between NTs andCO.
Figure 5.9: Part of an optical ber network[11]
Figure 5.10: Deleting SPs of degree 2 and all the segments interconnecting them[11]
Figure 5.11: Normalized network[11] 41
5.1.2.2
Planning Algorithms
The second phase includes the selection of preferable planning tools and platforms, application of different graph algorithms, performance measurement of the designed network and optimization of the nal network structure to achieve lower total planning cost and at the same time full the predened requirements. Modication of SPs or segments location is sometimes crucial for the successful run of the graph algorithms applied. In many cases the road network is cut because a small island close to the shore exists or a river runs through a city, for instance. The planning algorithms that are applied next are pure graph algorithms. In most cases, they belong to the family of shortest path algorithms and spanning tree algorithms, as the target set is minimization of the total trenching and ber cost at the area. In some cases, due to the complexity of the problems a network engineer is dealing with, genetic algorithms are preferred to generate a near optimal planning solution in a short time interval. Such solutions are to run multiple times and are continuously compared with previous outcomes held in the plan repository, until the optimal one is found. We will not dig into specic algorithms and methods in this section, as the ones used to in this project will be presented in more detail in chapter 7.1 on page 62. 5.1.2.3 Documentation presentation
The last phase of the planning method is limited in documenting the network planning terminology. One of the objectives of the project was to develop and document the multiphase planning methodology such as used architecture, graph algorithms, the economic model and the corresponding network planning parameters. Mapping representation of the nal form of the proposed network and the achieved results was accomplished by using MapInfo software for digitally visualizing the nal outcome of the design process.
5.1.3
Economic aspect
Main part of the planning process is the accurate calculation of the networks cost expenditure, CAPEX and OPEX. A typical network life cycle consists of the following ve stages [30]: Planning - up-front planning including technology choice, topology design, area scenario, etc. This initial planning phase deals with important decisions on many cost-driving factors for the deployment phase. For example, is it most suitable in the area under consideration (urban, rural or suburban) to use PON or PtP architecture? If PON topology is chosen, would it be Gigabit Passive optical network (GPON), Ethernet Passive optical network (EPON) or Wavelength divisionmultiplexing (WDM) PON? Deployment - actual network deployment, outside as well as inside plant. CAPEX comprising total trenching and total ber as well as all needed equipment inside and outside the CO main node is calculated. In general, this cost accounts for 60% - 70% [31] of the total network cost and that raises the need of a detailed business model during this phase. Penetration and service provisioning - the actual connection of the customers to the new service once the infrastructure is in place. Up and running - operating the network during its normal state; includes monitoring, maintenance, repairing costs, etc. .However, repairing costs cannot be calculated prior to network operation. Thus, statistics for average repairing cost per year should be added to the OPEX. 42
The overall cost breakdown for a ber cost deployment distinguishes between deployment - CAPEX and customer migration and running costs - OPEX - of a FTTH network. Figure 5.12 shows the CAPEX breakdown in ber access networks. Around 70% accounts for the network deployment cost, almost 10% includes maintenance, pricing, billing, energy consumption as well as an estimation on possible repair costs, in case of a cut ber for example, and the rest refers to connecting up front the total amount of subscribers in an area with the LAN.
Figure 5.12: FTTH price breakdown[30]
Concerning the networks running operational costs, gure 5.13 presents a typical OPEX breakdown. It must be stated here that the percentages for every different cost type should not be taken as the rule to follow but as an indicative scaling of the main diverse operational costs of the network. In every LAN deployment case, the designer is responsible for estimating the proportion and the nature of the networks running costs.
Figure 5.13: OPEX cost breakdown for keeping the network up and running[30]
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5.2
LTE Cellular Network Planning
The core task of cellular network planning is to set up the best possible radio network which provides a good feasible coverage of the investigated planning region. Due to the radical changes in technology and usage of cellular radio systems the design criteria of cellular networks have altered substantially. Beside the primary objective of providing a reliable radio link at every location within the planning region, a state of the art network design has to ensure a high quality of service as well, considering the aspects of reducing the cost of deployment a cellular radio system. The radio network planning process is divided into ve main steps as shown in gure 5.14, from which the initial four are before the actual launch of the network. After detailed planning, the network is ready for commercial usage, but the post-planning phase continues the process and targets the most optimal network conguration. The network planning process is a never ending cycle due to changes in the design parameters. Hence, this makes cellular network Planning a hard combinatorial problem that is multi-objective in nature.
Figure 5.14: Network planning process steps[32] In cellular network planning, a set of parameters or metrics join as an objective function, are used to quantify and evaluate the designed network in relation to meeting the targets and objectives. These metrics are called Key performance indicators (KPI) and they are used to set measurable objectives, evaluate progress, monitor trends, make improvements and support decision making[32]. The typical KPIs used in the planning of xed LTE network in this project are: Coverage (Section 5.2.1 on the next page) Capacity (Section 5.2.2 on page 46) and Economic aspects (Section 5.2.3 on page 52) Given an area to serve and keeping KPIs in mind, a network designer have to decide the following[33]: Number of BSs to be located in the service area. Optimal placement of BSs; necessary to maximize the coverage in the region (particularly in rural areas where the users are located sparsely, the number of BSs are expected to be less with wider ranges and thus their locations are more critical). Channel capacity of each BS subject to the total channel capacity. This would mainly depend on the trafc capacity demand at each BS. Maximal BS transmitting power. Antenna height. 44
5.2.1
Coverage Planning
The target for the coverage planning phase is to nd the optimal locations for BSs and design continuous coverage according to the planning requirements. Coverage planning is performed with the help of a planning tool, including a digital topographical map (GIS data) and a tuned model for propagation (like Okumura-Hata, Winner II, ITU-529 and COST-231). To achieve the objectives set by cellular network planning of any radio access network, the rst task is the calculation of radio link budget. 5.2.1.1 Link Budgets
The radio link budget aims to calculate the cell coverage area. The link budget calculations estimate the maximum allowed signal attenuation, called Path loss (PL), between the mobile and the base station antenna. The maximum path loss allows the maximum cell range to be estimated with a suitable propagation model and the cell range can be used to compute the number of BS sites required to cover the target geographical area. The link budget calculation can be also used to compare the relative coverage of the different systems when compared to LTE technology. Propagation models have been developed to estimate the radio wave propagation as accurately as possible. Models have been created for different environments to predict the path loss between transmitter and receiver. One of the most used models is the WINNER radio channel model [34]. This model is adaptable to a comprehensive range of mobile communication scenarios from short range to wide area. The latest model, known as the Phase II model, extends the frequency range to cover frequencies from 2 to 6 GHz and covers 13 propagation scenarios including indoor, outdoor-to-indoor (and vice versa), urban micro and macrocell and corresponding difcult urban scenarios, suburban and rural macrocell, feeder links and moving networks. The detailed model for the 13 propagation scenarios is shown in Appendix B ( IV on page 121). It is possible to vary the number of antennas, the antenna congurations, the geometry and the antenna beam pattern without changing the basic propagation model. This method enables the use of the same channel data in different link- and system -level simulations. These are ray-based doubledirectional multi-link models which are antenna independent, scalable and capable of creating arbitrary geometry-based MIMO channel models. Statistical distributions and channel parameters extracted from measurements in any propagation scenarios can be tted to the models [34]. Basically, the models are dependent on the following two factors:
Environment dependence Different radio-propagation environments would cause different radio-channel characteristics. Instead of attempting to parametrize environment directly (e.g. street widths, average building height etc.) WINNER models are using (temporal and spatial) propagation parameters obtained from channel measurements in different environments. In this context, environments in which measurements are conducted to observe radio-channel characteristics are called propagation scenarios. For each scenario, measured data is analysed and complemented with results from literature to obtain scenario-specic parameters. Frequency dependence Dependence on carrier frequency in WINNER model is found in path-loss models. All the scenarios dened by WINNER support frequency dependent path-loss models valid for the ranges of 2 6 GHz. The path-loss models are based on measurements that are mainly conducted in 2 and 5 GHz frequency range. 45
Path loss models In wireless systems, the transmitted signal is propagated in an open environment and its power weakens as a result of scattering, diffraction, reection and fading when received at the receiver; therefore it is important to calculate the received signal power to determine factors such as the radius of a cell or the type of the antenna. The degradation of the transmitted signal through interaction with the environment is known as path loss, or else, the difference between the transmitted and received signal power due to losses during its propagation in free space. In general, path loss is calculated by: P athLoss = PT + GT + GR PR LT LR [dB ] (5.1)
where, PT shows the power at transmitter and PR is power at the receiver, GT and GR is the transmitter and receiver antenna gain respectively, LT and LR express the feeder losses. This equation describes the link budget. A link budget describes the extent to which the transmitted signal weakens in the link before it is received at the receiver. Therefore the link budget accounts for all the gains and losses in the path the signal takes to the receiver. Path-loss models have been specied for all the 13 scenarios set in the WINNER Model, divided into two sub-scenarios according to propagation conditions (Line of Sight (LOS)/None Line of Sight (NLOS)) when applicable. The general structure of the path-loss is given by equation 5.2, where d is the distance between the transmitter and the receiver in [m], fc is the system frequency in [GHz], the tting parameter A includes the path-loss exponent, parameter B is the intercept, parameter C describes the path loss frequency dependence and X is an optional, environment specic term (e.g. wall attenuation in NLOS scenarios). fc [GHZ ] )+X (5.2) 5.0 Apart from the Path-loss, the other required parameters are the transmission power, antenna gain, cable losses, receiver sensitivity and margins. When dening the cell coverage area, the aim is to balance the uplink and downlink powers. The links are calculated separately and are different from the transmission powers. The BS transmission power is higher than the UE transmission power and therefore the reception of the BS needs to have high sensitivity. P athLoss(LT E ) = A log10 (d[m]) + B + C log10 (
5.2.2
Capacity Planning
To achieve the capacity objective set by cellular network planning of any Radio Access Network, one has to look at the trafc characteristics of the geographical area to be served by the network. The geographical breakdown of the trafc is commercially sensitive for operators as it has a direct impact on network deployment strategies. It is more complex to gain precisely quantitative insight into system capability under different service provision scenarios, which requires good capacity planning for improved user experience and reduced cost. Generally, capacity planning is the process to determine network topology and conguration (number of site, MIMO conguration, basic radio parameter determination, etc.), under the constraints of service requirement based on trafc growth prediction. In addition, network operators strategy should be taken into consideration with highest priority before concrete network design. Generally, for capacity planning the input part consists of two main elements[35]: Trafc requirement input: in order to achieve instructive capacity planning outcome, a complete set of information about trafc prediction in future network should be provided, scenario denition 46
(dense urban, urban, suburban, rural, etc.), population distribution (population density in each scenario), service penetration ratio, trafc type, trafc arrival density, trafc Quality of Service (QoS) requirement, etc. The trafc requirement should also be taken in consideration from operators specic strategy with highest priority. This is of vital importance to the quantitative denition of above trafc related requirement. Parameter input: two types of parameters are dened. First class is the basic radio and engineer parameters, which includes system bandwidth, transmission power (total power, power allocation, control parameters), antenna type or pattern, MIMO conguration, etc. The second class is optimization parameters and tuned to search for optimum capacity planning solution. Typically, such class mainly refers to inter-site distance and antenna down-tilt, and for more advanced planning, some radio parameters (power parameter, bandwidth parameters, etc) could be chosen as optional optimization parameters. Therefore, rst the geographical scenario is dened from the exact area to be served by the network as follows: Urban areas The traditional concept of a town or city would be a free-standing built-up area with a service core with a sufcient number and variety of shops and services, including perhaps a market, to make it recognisably urban in character. It would have administrative, commercial, educational, entertainment and other social and civic functions and, in many cases, evidence of being historically well established. A local network of roads and other means of transport would focus on the area, and it would be a place drawing people for services and employment from surrounding areas. It would often be a place known beyond its immediate vicinity[36]. Suburban areas Suburban area surrounds major cities and are usually formed by a single-family detached households, with predominant green space and a lower population density in comparison with the city centers (urban areas). Many communities exist between urban and suburban, or even between suburban and rural, especially as suburban areas continue expanding. There are several factors that led to the emergence and expansion of suburban areas, leading people to choose to live in the suburbs instead of an urban area today[37]. Rural areas The nature of the term rural varies from place to place [38]. It often refers to areas in the country concerned which are less densely populated. There are different types of rural areas, depending on how accessible they are from urban areas. These range from the rural urban fringe, to the extreme (remote) rural areas. Rural areas change over time. These changes are caused by: economic factors - tourism income, farming protability, primary sector jobs environmental factors - land use, pollution, conservation social factors - population change and migration, leisure time, retirement population Even in the above distinguished geographical scenarios, users are very unevenly distributed, with portion of the population concentrated in some areas while the remaining area is sparsely populated. The concentration of the population in specic geographical areas implies that the internet trafc, too, is heavily 47
concentrated in some specic areas. Thus, capacity requirement is strongly related to the subscriber density in the geographical area under investigation. Although it is clear that the vast majority of the internet trafc occurs in selected areas, telcos must maintain geographical coverage to ensure continuity of service. They have to dimension their network in any given location for the peak demand that can occur while ensuring a continuous and signicant geographical coverage. The main requirements as an input for capacity planning are: User prole Currently data trafc drastically reached very high values for broadband subscribers. The user prole in this perspective stands for the trafc characteristics (data rates) and download volume of an average user. Considering user prole based on download volume, in May 2012 Cisco indicated that the average global Internet trafc increased eight folds over the past 5 years, and will increase three folds over the next 5 years[39]. The trafc shared by western Europe out of this increase for a 5 year interval is shown in table 5.2
2011 5,132 2012 7,463 2013 9,311 2014 11,822 2015 14,796 2016 18,233
Western Europe (PB per Month)
Table 5.2: Consumer Internet Trafc, 2011-2016
Using the forecast Internet trafc and the regional xed line broadband subscribers, the volume of data download per month for an average user can be calculated. The number of subscribers is also obtained from Cisco survey[40] and shown in table 5.3.
2011 252,360,141 (58%) 434,200,925 2013 258,212,564 (59%) 437,648,414 2016 269,376,918 (61%) 442,819,648
Fixed Broadband Subscriptions Population
Table 5.3: Regional Fixed Broadband Penetration for Western Europe
Therefore, using the data obtained from table 5.2 and table 5.3 the average monthly download volume for xed broadband connection is obtained and is shown in table 5.4.
2011 22 GB 2013 38 GB 2016 71 GB
Western Europe
Table 5.4: Average monthly Download Volume of Fixed Broadband Subscriber
The other perspective of user prole is looking at the average data rate of a user in the area under consideration. Currently in Denmark, an average user using a xed network has a download speed, upload speed, and network latency of 14.276 Mbps, 7.221 Mbps and 44 ms respectively[41]. In addition, the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) is working on broadband networks in Europe and set targets which countries should work on to achieve. This targets are [9]: 48
by 2013, all European citizens should have access to basic broadband EC denes the basic broadband as the main xed-line technology, which is capable of providing at least 144 kbps in downlink direction [42] Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) denes the basic broadband as having download data rates equal or faster than 256 kbps [42] while in 2010 the Federal Communication Commission in USA deed the basic broadband as transmission rates to be at least 4Mbit/s in downlink direction and 1Mbit/s in the upstream direction. by 2020, all European citizens should have access to Internet of above 30Mbit/s, meaning that the basic broadband by that year should be equal or over 30Mbps and 50% of the European households will have a subscription for services with speed above 100Mbps, which will be provided by the future network infrastructure. Specically in Denmarks case, 98% of premises is estimated to have a weighted average coverage of 30Mbit/s broadband from commercially viable terrestrial deployments in 2020, while the equivalent gures for 100Mbit/s broadband is 63% of premises. The number of subscribers The maximum number of broadband subscribers can be obtained by converting the cell throughput values using two methods: a trafc volume based approach and a data rate based approach [24]. The trafc volume based approach estimates the maximum trafc volume in gigabytes that can be carried by LTE bandwidth and based on the individual average download volume of users, the maximum subscriber number is calculated as shown in the left part of gure 5.15. The other approach, shown in the right part of gure 5.15, assumes a target data rate of 1Mbps per subscriber. Since only some of the subscribers are downloading data simultaneously, we can apply an overbooking factor, for example 20. This essentially means that the average busy hour data rate is 50 kbps per subscriber.
Figure 5.15: LTE dimensioning example [24] 49
For the cell capacity of LTE, 3GPP Release 8 has dened ve terminal categories having different bit rate capabilities, as shown in table 5.5. Category 1 is the lowest capability with maximum bit rates of 10Mbps downlink and 5Mbps uplink while Category 5 is the highest capability with data rates of 300 Mbps in downlink and 75 Mbps uplink. The bit rate capability in practice is dened as the maximum transport block size that the terminal is able to process in 1ms.
Peak rate downlink (approximately) Peak rate uplink (approximately) Max bits received within TTI Max bits transmitted within TTI RF bandwidth Modulation downlink Modulation uplink Receiver diversity eNodeB diversity MIMO downlink
Category 1 10 Mbps 5Mbps 10296 5160 20MHz 64QAM
Category 2 50 Mbps 25 Mbps 51024 25456 20MHz 64QAM
Category 3 100 Mbps 50 Mbps 102048 51024 20MHz 64QAM
Category 4 150 Mbps 50 Mbps 149776 51024 20MHz 64QAM 16QAM Yes 1-4 tx 2x2
Category 5 300 Mbps 75 Mbps 299552 75376 20MHz 64QAM 16QAM Yes 1-4 tx 4x4
16QAM 16QAM 16QAM Yes Yes Yes 1-4 tx 1-4 tx 1-4 tx Optional 2x2 2x2 Table 5.5: Terminal Catagories [24]
All categories must support all RF bandwidth options from 1.4 to 20 MHz, 64QAM modulation in downlink and 1-4 transmission branches at eNodeB. The receive antenna diversity is selected via performance requirements. Currently, LTE deployment phase is using terminal categories 2, 3 and 4 providing downlink data rates up to 150 Mbps and supporting 2x2 MIMO. In the current project, terminal category 3 is used as the cell capacity value with a maximum theoretical downlink data rate of 100Mbps and 50 Mbps uplink rate. Spectrum available The LTE frequency bands in 3GPP specications are divided into paired bands and unpaired bands. Currently, 22 paired bands and nine unpaired bands have been dened as shown in Appendix A ( IV on page 119). Some of the bands are currently used by other technologies and LTE can coexist with the legacy technologies. In the best case in Europe there is over 600MHz of spectrum available for the mobile operators when including the 800, 900, 1800, 2100 and 2600MHz Frequency division duplex (FDD) and Time division duplex (TDD) bands. The design of an LTE network by an operator depends on the spectrum amount it has leased. 5.2.2.1 High Capacity Backhaul
LTEs capacity has given users the ability to download and upload huge data trafc with high-throughput and efciency. This increase in end users link capacity has brought backhaul to the fore as the crucial link 50
that ensures the subscribers trafc reliably reaches the core network and as a potentially very damaging bottleneck if it lacks the required capacity. As a result, when a high capacity access infrastructure is designed, considering the capacity of the backhaul is a mandatory practice and should be improved if necessary. Several solutions exist to address the requirements of a cellular backhaul network, both wireless and wire-line, each of which meet different requirements in terms of capacity, reliability, deployment time, cell-site availability and cost. The most commonly used backhaul technologies are[43]: Microwave PtP Microwave Point-to-Multi-Point (P2MP) E-band PtP Fiber Optics All of the above technologies offer high capacity and are appropriate for data processing and transmission for every latest generation wireless access technologies. Copper is not included in the list, not because it is not an alternative way to design a backbone but because it is no longer preferable due to its capacity limitations. It was vastly used for the deployment of the 1st analogue telecommunications networks for voice transmission but it cannot satisfy any more the increased bandwidth requirements of the latest high-speed wireless communication standards, such as UMTS or LTE3 . Microwave technology refers to transmission of electromagnetic waves of very short wavelength. The microwave spectrum begins above the UHF region at 900 or 1000 MHz, depending on the source authority, and reaches up to 300 GHz. When this technology is used in the design of a backhaul network, it can be implemented as a PtP or P2MP architecture. Microwave PtP requires a symmetric link to connect each BS site to a hub that is in turn connected to the backbone. If the BS site is too far from the hub or there is no LOS, the backhaul may have to include two hops. Traditionally, PtP links are deployed using a star topology in which all BS sites are connected directly to the hub. Increasingly, PtP links are organized in tree-and-branch and ring networks, which can increase the efciency, the reach and the reliability of the backhaul[43]. Microwave P2MP allows one access point in the hub to connect to multiple BS sites and, as a result, it does not require a dedicated symmetrical link for each backhauled cell site. This results in fewer radios and a potential for higher utilization of backhaul resources. P2MP spectrum is most commonly allocated as a long-term license within a country or an region within a country[43]. E-band PtP is also a wireless technology that operates in the frequency bands 71-76 and 81-86 GHz. The 10 GHz of available bandwidth the largest ITU bandwidth allocation for such services can offer data rate capacities of 1 Gbps and higher implemented by relatively simple, low-cost radio techniques. It requires the same symmetric LOS links that microwave PtP uses, and can be deployed using the same topologies star, tree-and-branch, and ring but it uses the 70 to 80 GHz spectrum. Because of the higher frequency, E-band wireless has a shorter reach and its performance is more severely affected by environmental factors like rain. As for Microwave PtP, spectrum is leased on a per-link basis.[43]
3 FiXme
Note: REF
51
Capacity
Microwave PMP 20 - 300 Mbps
Microwave PTP 20 - 500 Mbps
Spectrum Bands Link distance
Spectrum channels Capex/Opex trade-offs
Installation time Best deployed
10.5 GHz, 26 GHz, 28 GHz Up to 19.5 km (10.5 GHz), up to 7 km at 26 GHz and up to 6.4 km at 28 GHz 7-56 MHz More capexintensive solution than leased ber Weeks/Months High celldensity areas
5-80 GHz Up to 50 km
E-band PTP 100 Mbps - 3 Gbps today; up to 10 Gbps in the future 71-76 GHz, 81-86 GHz Up to 5 km
Fiber Up to 40 Gbps
N/A Unlimited (achieved by the usage of ampliers)
3.5-80 MH Higher Opex than PMP and Eband due to higher spectrum costs Weeks/Months High cell-density areas but also suburban and rural areas where wire-line connectivity is not available
Up to 5 GHz More capexintensive solution than leased ber Hours/Days High cell-density areas
N/A Higher capex and opex, lower capex in case of leased ber Months/Years Where ber infrastructure is available, accessible and cost-effective
Table 5.6: Comparison of mentioned high data rate technologies for cellular backbone network implementation[43]
Finally, ber can also be used as a backhaul technology. Cellular ISPs can deploy their own ber or lease a ber line to connect their BSs to the core network. A comparison among all backhaul solutions is summarized in table 5.6 In this project, since we are designing a heterogeneous access network of ber and LTE, the backhaul of the LTE network, which interconnects the BSs with the COs is considered to use a ber backhaul technology.
5.2.3
Economic Aspect
In order to satisfy coverage and capacity constraints of the cellular network planning, the network should be economically feasible for deployment by the operator and has to be affordable by the subscriber. The highest cost enquired when deploying the network is mainly the CAPEX. LTE CAPEX contributes to the xed infrastructure of the network and is depreciated over time. The majority of expenditure is due to deployment phase maintenance cost which includes the non-network specic infrastructure (like labour, purchase of land and buildings) and the remaining cost from network specic infrastructure as shown in gure 5.16 on the facing page 52
Figure 5.16: LTE typical CAPEX breakdown [44] LTE OPEX is associated with the cost of operating the network. It does not contribute to the xed infrastructure of the network by itself and, consequently, is not subject to depreciation. It represents the costs for technical and commercial operations, administration, equipment maintenance, energy consumption, etc., as shown in gure 5.17:
Figure 5.17: LTE typical OPEX breakdown [44]
53
Chapter
Aalborg Commune
This chapter presents important statistical information about the area where the hybrid broadband network is designed. The selected area is the commune of Aalborg. Some of the important facts that have to be analysed before proposing a specic network topology are: Geographical location - analysing the geographical location of the future region where the network will be deployed will help obtain information about the location of the area and the environmental and social conditions as well as the corresponding laws and customs. For instance, depending in which part of the world the network is planned to be deployed and the corresponding country, city or district laws, might result to restrictions in the nal design (for example national parks or historical landmarks, through which ber cannot pass) or even total prohibition of the network. Also, whether the area is located in a economically stable region, how it will benet from a broadband network, will this region expand in the future based on statistical information, etc. Area demographics - the analysis that can be derived from the area demographics will dene the network dimensionality in terms of trenching and ber length. For example, when a network is planned for deployment in Denmark, the planning will not face the problem of high altitudes on which the ber cables has to be delivered to or building up an antenna on a mountain top. Also, the demographics in Denmark are almost the same for the whole country in comparison, for instance, with Switzerland, where the planning procedure has to take into account a lot of high altitude regions, which will result in diversication of the total CAPEX cost of the network and alteration of the planning process principal. Characterization of the area as rural, suburban or urban - this measurement will provide information regarding the dimensionality of the network that is planned to be designed, based on the area size and the amount of users that intends to serve. It will also give a knowledge of what type of subscribers are aimed to be served. For example, if the area is urban, the network will serve a city where not only single households are located, in comparison with most rural cases but also a certain amount of business buildings and industries. The total amount of end-users that will subscribe to the network will be also higher in comparison with an area which is characterized as rural, without considering alternate parameters, such as competition, for instance. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the areas population - this analysis will provide information regarding the population occupancy, quantitative measurements of population employment rate, 54
CHAPTER 6. AALBORG COMMUNE
how big percentage of population are currently working with Internet and for what purposes, how big is the trafc that they are generating, etc. Population forecast in the next 10-30 years - the population forecast statistic for the upcoming years will show if the currently picked area is suitable for deploying a high-speed network infrastructure based on the information regarding how the region will evolve in the future years in terms of predicted population variation. In case the forecast is favourable, more and more subscribers will be willing to move to this area, due to economical development in this region, and more and more potential subscriptions to the network will be held. Existing infrastructure - if broadband infrastructure is absent from the area, the total cost for deploying a green-eld network will be higher as an already existing one can be modied, upgraded or even leased partly in order to provide the new service. On the other hand, deployment of a new broadband access network in an area lacking competition will increase the penetration of subscribers in the offered services and will lead in direct depreciation for telco that owns the network.
6.1
Information about Aalborg
The city of Aalborg, also known as the Danish industrial and academic city in Nordjylland, is the fourth highly populated city in Denmark, behind the capital Copenhagen, Aarhus and Odense. The total number of inhabitants, based on the latest statistical information obtained from Danmarks Statistik [45], for the rst quarter of 2013 is 203 448. Aalborg city is characterized as urban area, while the whole commune could be considered as mainly suburban and rural. Figure 6.1 shows some of the dense regions in the area with the approximate number of NTs in each of them.
Figure 6.1: Aalborg area presented in terms of density
55
Aalborg is the biggest industrial and commercial center in North Jutland. Many of the traditional industries in the city have been closed in the recent years, but new ones arose, especially operating in the eld of mobile and wireless communications. For a short period of time they turned into a dominating sector in Aalborg since the 1990s. Great interest has been showed in recent years to another leading industry in the region, the renewable energy forms. There are more and more energy companies as well as university researchers that show increasing interest on this eld which might lead to physical relocation in the surrounding region. As a proof to this statement is the fact that the rst European Conference of Sustainable Cities and Towns took place in Aalborg in 1994, followed by the fourth one which took place in 2004 and had as a target to turn the sustainable urban development from mare words into a real deeds. Taking into account the aforementioned sectors of interest and combining them with the traditional and modern industries operating in this region and the ones which can be met all over Denmark, together with the population forecast, shown in gure 6.3 on the next page, Aalborg has turned into one of the most rapidly developed cities in Denmark lately. Combining all this facts together, yells the need of a survey on a broadband network infrastructure in the area, which can be implemented or the currently used one which can be modied/upgraded in the near future, when the local business and individual needs of high speed stable network will rise. This need can be met with the design of an optical ber access network combined with 4G/LTE, which can be used in the local loop or as a backhaul network connecting the COs to all the BSs that will provide a high connectivity wireless access network in the region. It should be stated that in Aalborg, as in whole Denmark, LTE connectivity is already a commercial product, though targeting solely mobile users.
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6.2
Statistical information
One of the most important quantitative measurements that has to be provided for every area in order to motivate a telecommunication company to deploy an access network, in terms of short-term payback potential, is the areas population. Based on that, the following statistical data will be related to peoples age distribution, number of households, employment rate, etc., and the conclusion should be based not only on the current data but also on the future forecast of these numbers that can be extracted from different statistical surveys. Figure 6.2 gives information on how the population is spread over a ten age category. Based on the services that the future high-speed connection will provide, like HDTV television, telemedicine, video streaming, online gaming, etc. and the provided statistical information, shows that people from different age categories will take advantage from the new offered services and benet from a high speed access network, turning it into a feasible deployment solution.
Figure 6.2: Aalborg population by age
Table 6.3 shows the population projection in Aalborg over the next 37 years with respect to the 9 age categories. The data indicates that the total population will increase continuously over the next 37 years, which will lead to a proportional increase in the total subscriptions in the offered broadband services.
Figure 6.3: Aalborg population projection by age and time 57
Figure 6.4 shows the total number of houses in the area for the past 10 years with respect to the number of inhabitants in them. The total number of households in Aalborg, based on the latest statistical data, accounts for 100 152. The total number of households is increasing year after year with some small margin, which indicates that the region is growing;thus, penetration to a broadband network will proportionally increase.
Figure 6.4: Aalborg households with respect to size and time Another important statistic that can be analysed and justify the need of a high speed access network in the area, is the information regarding the percentage of employment throughout the population of Aalborg. Figure 6.5 shows the data separated into 11 age categories group with respect to the employment rate and the economical activity for people between 16 and 64 years of age.
Figure 6.5: Activity and Employment rates by age As it can be derived from the data, the average percentage of employment for people between 20 and 60 years old is around 78 % 1 ; hence, it is assumed that big part of the population is currently and
1 No statistical information were found on what is the percentage out of these 78 % that are using Internet on a daily basis and how much trafc they generate
58
everyday using Internet through the already established network, meaning that many of them will benet from a new broadband network deployment, in terms of social and economical aspects like high-speed connectivity, time saving, etc. Table 6.6 shows the percentage of usage of the following communication activities (VoIP, Video calls, Chat sites, news groups, social network sites, instant messaging, reading blogs), with respect to the 4 age groups, students and employee in Nordjylland.
Figure 6.6: Use of Internet for communication activities by communication activity, time, type, region, age category and employment status
As it can be seen on gure 6.6, the percentage in some of the categories increases with a big margin only for one year. Unfortunately, there is no statistical data showing the latest results but if we base our 59
assumption on the number of users in the biggest social networks like Facebook and Twitter (which is increasing daily) and the number of people using free Voip and video call programs like Skype, the current percentage of people that is actually using such popular type of services and many more will be much higher than the results indicated in table 6.6 on the preceding page. It is beyond doubt that the area picked for the hybrid broadband network deployment is a fast developing and business growing region in Nordjylland. High percentage of young people are stably located and working in the commune while forecasts show that the population will follow an upward trend the following 37 years. Aalborg by itself is the 4th bigger city in Denmark, part of the very developed technologically Scandinavia. An investment in a high-speed access network, if not now but in the near future is required to cover the increasing demands of Aalborg residents for xed broadband connectivity at their premises. The risk for a telco to invest a substantial capital for its deployment is regarded low, if the appropriate business model is followed. A high-speed access network will be an attraction for people living in other cities and a good motivation to buy properties in the region and relocate. Moreover, it will affect positively peoples willingness of a permanent establishment in the area. LTE networks will be deployed on the local loop for xed broadband connectivity to the end-users premises. Most commonly deployed wire-line topology for the time is VDSL. It will not be too late that peoples trafc demands will grow so high that copper in the last mile part of the access network will no longer be sufcient; this will trigger the time for FTTH wide area deployment.
60
Part II
Design and Implementation
61
Chapter
Access network Design

7.1 Planning of the ber access network
Planning of the ber access network has been implemented in Aalborg commune instead of whole Nordjylland area, for the reason that the computation time needed to complete the task was shorter as the available GIS data size was shorter too. Several tools have been utilized during this phase of the project, including python, Matlab, Mapinfo, postgreSQL and excel spreadsheets. A algorithm has been used through the networkx python library for graph programming. K-means algorithm has also been modied[11] and used. An automatic method for calculating the cost per NT, depending on whether the area under search is rural, suburban or urban, has been developed. Importing the GIS data corresponding to the rest area of Nordjylland region into the same scripts, it is only a matter of time to connect every NT to the dimensioned FTTH network and apply the previously mentioned algorithms. Throughout this chapter, all elements linked with the ber network design will be thoroughly presented.
7.1.1
Architecture
The main architectures used on the infrastructure part of the optical access network are the PtP, PON and AON architectures, as presented in chapter 5.1 on page 32. In this project, PtP architecture in Aalborg commune has been adopted for designing the access network.
Figure 7.1: Point-To-Point architecture
62
CHAPTER 7. ACCESS NETWORK DESIGN
Despite being generally more expensive topological structure compared to the rest, the decision was based mainly on qualitative parameters, such as network reliability and upgradeability. As can be seen in gure 7.1 on the facing page, a bundle of 96 ber cables connects the CO with 48 households through a 1:48 PCP. It is a pure green-eld ber LAN deployment in the whole region, targeting at connecting 100% of households.
7.1.2
GIS data
The typical GIS model for access network planning include geographically referenced GIS data for the following two major categories: Potential customers Road network, as the trenching layout mainly follows the existing road infrastructure Other spatial entities can and should be dened to include important real world features as suitable for a given network planning project. The GIS model consist of three main conceptual elements: Customers: The spacial entities used for modelling the potential customers in the network are stored in the Aalborg NT table. The NTs correspond to the potential costumers location, as the main focus falls to provide connectivity to each household or building structure. The attributes included in the NT table are 1 : Kommunenr: The id of the commune (851 for Aalborg commune) Vejkode: The unique street code every NT is located on (integer value) Husnr: The number of every NT without separating between different apartments or apartments being part of the same building, for example, 1,7, etc. (integer value) Bogstav: Part of the code describing an NT without the number in front, for example A, B, C, etc. NTs that are described only by the number code keep this entry empty X koord: The x-coordinate of every NT Y koord: The y-coordinate of every NT NT id: Every NTs unique id Road network: In most cases, the road network forms the basis for applying the graph algorithms relevant to design a ber network. It can be provided by a municipality or by private companies operating in that eld. With the help of a GIS tool, road paths have to be cut in shorter segments in order to render the road network as a valuable tool in the hands of the network designer. This process has not been implemented by the group members but the table with all its attributes, as presented below, was offered in its nal form by the CNP, Aalborg university. The attributes included in the segment table are 2 :
1 The down-stated name bullets were denoted by the owners of the le and the notion has been kept with regards to small and large capitals and special characters 2 The down-stated name bullets were denoted by the owners of the le and the notion has been kept with regards to small and large capitals and special characters
63
s id: Every segments unique id. SP id1: The id of the SP on the one edge of the segment. SP id2: The id of the SP on the other edge of the segment. SP x1: The x-coordinate of SP1. SP y1: The y-coordinate of SP1. SP x2: The x-coordinate of SP2. SP y2: The y-coordinate of SP2. length: The length of every segment. mid id: Middle Point ID. komnr: Aalborgss community number equal to 360 in all entries of the table vejkode: The code of the street every segment is belonging to Central ofces: The spatial entities modelling the COs are stored in the Aalborg co table. The attributes included in the table are: CO id: Every COs unique id CO x: The x-coordinate of every CO CO y: The y-coordinate of every CO The basic GIS model initially does not include any CO entities as the CO geographic location and quantity is part of the network planning process. Note: Throughout the design part the following notion will be used: The COs will be denoted as - stars ( ) The SPs will be denoted as - circles () The PCPs will be denoted as - squares ( ) The NTs will be denoted as - x-es (x)
7.1.3
Data preparation
The supported le format of the given tables which was in text les is not suitable and convenient to work with. In order to have an easy access and be able to manipulate the given information, some modications have been made. The original data was saved into spreadsheets. The software that was used to store these spreadsheets was Libre ofce and the le format of the new les was changed from *.txt to *.csv. By having the data stored into *.csv le format allowed us to transfer the whole data stored into these spreadsheets and import them into postgreSQL database tables, together with several other tables created during the planning process of the network. Being aware of GIS information of all the networks elements leads to a much more simplied programming task and accurate output. For further information on the various tables created in pgAdmin3 interface of postgreSQL during the network planning process can be 64
seen in Appendix C IV on page 124. Flowchart 7.2 presents the steps that were followed in the Data Preparation phase of the planning process.
Figure 7.2: Data Preparation[11]
It follows in a bit differentiated way the general planning structure presented in section 5.6 on page 38. The main target of this phase is to normalize the road network together with all elements and attributes related to it. Before reaching this stage, a number of intermediate tasks should be fullled. Initially, links to connect customers to the road network have to be created. Using euclidean distance algorithm in a python script, data from both tables were fetched and every NT has been connected to the closest SP. This resulted in a change in the degree of the SPs. Using Matlab, the degree of all 124 118 SPs in the area was found. This degree refers to the number of segments that are connected to every SP node. By knowing the degree of every SP, the normalization of the road network could be nally achieved. As it was presented in section 5.1.2.1 on page 40, every SP of degree 1 or 2 with no NTs connected was deleted. This resulted in a 47.65% reduction of total segments in the area, from 124118 to 59138.
65
Having achieved normalization of the road network, we are ready to move on with applying the graph algorithms and work on the technical part of the planning process.
7.1.4
Planning algorithms
In many cases, the network designer has the task to design the optical ber network in a way, that he has to take into account many restrictions, such as the locations of COs, where the OLTs should be placed, from where the optical ber cables should pass, etc.. Several graph algorithms exist that deal with such issues. The most well known algorithms vastly used for such purposes belong to the family of spanning tree and shortest path algorithms, such as Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) and SMT in the rst case and Dijkstra, A , Bellman-Ford, Johnson, etc, in the second case. In general, spanning tree algorithms achieve minimization of the total trenching cost while shortest path algorithms are more suitable for minimizing the total ber cost. However, only one out of the two approaches can be used for the trenching process, resulting in distinct solutions. In this project, the graph algorithms that have been applied in the whole Aalborg commune are: A algorithm - Shortest path algorithm applied for both trenching and calculating the total ber length K-means algorithm - Clustering algorithm used for clustering NTs to a specic PCP 7.1.4.1 Astar algorithm
A algorithm has been used for calculating both the total trenching and ber length needed to connect the COs with the correspondent subscribers that lie within the service region of the separate COs.3 The criteria of applying A algorithm over several other shortest path algorithms was the computation time. A algorithm proved to be much faster compared to Dijkstra algorithm in nding all possible paths between two nodes in a graph as well as returning the path with the shorter length. It must be stated here that A is already implemented in networkx python library in form of a function and this function was applied in the created script. Therefore, the comparison of these two algorithms with respect to computation time has been based on the implementations available in this networkx library. A is a greedy graph traversal and path nding algorithm which lies on the principle of breadth rst search algorithms. It uses a distance-cost heuristic function f (x) which is the sum of the following functions: the path-cost function g (x), which is the cost of the root node to every intermediate node x during the graph traversal process an admissible heuristic estimate function h(x) of the distance (cost) from every intermediate node x to the target node In practice, A algorithm uses two algorithms to balance each other: Favoring paths closest to the root node, which is equivalent to Dijkstra shortest path algorithm Favoring paths closest to the target node, which is equivalent to Best Fit Search algorithm
3 The down-stated section 7.1.4.1 was obtained from report [11], which was written by the same group members that participated in writing the present MSc thesis
66
This is what makes up the elements of the function f (x) = g (x) + h(x). Therefore, if h = 0 then f (x) = g (x), which is Dijkstras shortest path algorithm. If, on the other hand, h grows arbitrarily large then g essentially gets ignored due to scale and the function results in f (x) = g (x), which is actually the Best Fit Search algorithm. So, by having a heuristic component in the function f that is admissible and at the same scale as the path cost, it offers A algorithm the power to balance out both functions g and h and achieve a fast shortest path algorithm. Concerning the differences between the two algorithms, A is much faster than Dijkstra and is applicable in both directed and undirected graph analysis [11] 4 . 7.1.4.2 K-means clustering algorithm
As it was already mentioned, in the PtP access networks a direct link between the CO and each end-user exists. In practice, however, such deployment is considered infeasible for a high number of end-users in terms of cost increase. The total length of ber would exceed thousands of km in case a FTTH network was to be deployed in an area similar to the current test case. What happens in reality is that 96 optical cables, designed to serve 48 end-users, half in uplink and half in downlink direction, are bundled together into a single cable until they reach the PCP. At this point, the 96 bers are split and routed to different directions until they reach the CPE, usually located outside the subscribers premises. The challenging part is to place smartly the adequate number of PCPs needed to serve the total amount of end-users inside a CO service region. In this project, k-means clustering algorithm has been applied in the 20 CO regions for this purpose. Cluster analysis is based on the assignment of a large number of data into multiple groups (called clusters) so that data in the same cluster are similar with each other in some sense. Clustering is a method of unsupervised learning, and a common technique for statistical data analysis used in many elds. Among many clustering techniques, k-means algorithm, which classies n data into k clusters (k < n) based on Euclidean distance, is the most well known and commonly used clustering algorithm. The k-means algorithm is a fairly simple data clustering technique which minimizes the average distance between data and its cluster center. The number of clusters to form, k, is an input parameter to the algorithm. Given a set of points x = x1, x2, ....., xn where each point is a d-dimensional real vector, k-means clustering aims to partition the n points into k clusters (k n) S= s1, s2, ....., sk so as to minimize the within-cluster sum of squares (WCSS):[46]
k
argmins
i=1 xj Si
|xj i |2 ,
(7.1)
where i is the center of the i-th cluster Si . The algorithm is composed of the following steps: Place K points into the space represented by the objects that are being clustered. These points represent initial group centroids. Assign each object to the group that has the closest centroid. When all objects have been assigned, recalculate the positions of the K centroids. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 until the centroids no longer move. This produces a separation of the objects into groups from which the metric to be minimized can be calculated.
4 The down-stated section 7.1.4.2 was obtained from report [11], which was written by the same group members that participated in writing the present MSc thesis
67
Figure 7.3 illustrates how the k-means algorithm works:
Figure 7.3: k-means clustering: [47]
Although it can be proved that the procedure will always terminate, the k-means algorithm does not necessarily nd the most appropriate conguration, corresponding to the global objective function minimum but provides a reasonable conguration in short time. The algorithm is also signicantly sensitive to the initial randomly selected cluster centres. The k-means algorithm can be run multiple times to reduce this effect.
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7.1.5
Programming the ber access network
Flowchart 7.4 presents the intermediate steps of the technical planning procedure that is triggered after successful integration of the segments normalization process.
Figure 7.4: Planning Algorithms
Initially, the total number of COs should be dened for the area under consideration. This can be done by following the hard path (not global solution yet found), which is an automatic algorithm that takes into account parameters like population density, ground formation, etc. and returns the optimal number and location of COs that can serve the total amount of end-users in the area, or the easy path which is limited to a more abstract selection of the number of COs and manual placement of them on the map. Finding the most appropriate number and location of the COs is not in the scope of this project. The manual placement method used is not the optimal one but appropriate for the present purposes.
69
In Aalborg commune, 20 COs have been chosen to serve the total amount of end users and they were manually placed based on the population density and the distance constrain. The total amount of COs was picked to be 20 since it fullled the distance constrain not to exceed 10km between the CO and the end-user. Figure 7.5 presents the 20th COs denoted by yellow stars and the NTs corresponding to them as well as the initial road map.
Figure 7.5: Digital representation of Aalborg area including road map, NT distribution and CO location
NOTE: The NT color notation, showing which NTs belongs to which CO is presented in table 7.6
Figure 7.6: NT color notation
The number of NTs that are connected to each CO as well as the number of PCPs corresponding to each CO are presented in table 7.1 on page 72. The number of NTs varies a lot, due to the fact that the placement of the COs was made by hand and the density of the area is not uniform, as urban, suburban and rural regions cover Aalborg commune.
70
After selecting the position of the COs, the next step was to calculate which SPs are the closest to which COs. This calculation was accomplished by the A algorithm. Using straight lines between two SPs and not the road network, carries the risk of misplacing a SP into a wrong service region. Figure 7.7 presents a simple example of wrong allocation of a SP into an invalid region in case euclidean distance algorithm is used instead of A [11].
Figure 7.7: Astar algorithm vs Euclidean Distance algorithm in allocating SPs to the nearest CO[11] The black line represents segments that belong to the road network, while the red line is an euclidean distance line added to directly connect the SP with CO1. Using euclidean distance, the total length from SP to CO1 will be 7 m and the length from SP to CO2 will be 8 m. Consequently, SP will be allocated to CO1 service region. However, this is not correct as the actual distance separating SP from CO1 is (3 + 5 + 4 + 1) = 13 m, which is bigger than 8 m and therefore, SP must be served from CO2. The main drawback of preferring A algorithm over euclidean distance algorithm is the increased computational time needed to execute the algorithm between every one of the totally 46 222 segment points to each of the 20 COs and executing sequential comparisons until the shortest distance is returned [11].
Figure 7.8: Nodes not connected to the main node network
71
The main problem when applying the A algorithm occurred when some SP nodes were disconnected from the main node network. In reality, this can happen for various reasons, for example due to the small island located inside the fjord canal north-west of the city of Aalborg or corrupted date in terms of missing paths between some of the SPs. Figure 7.8 on the preceding page reveals some of the areas where this problem occurred and resulted in termination of the running procedure. In order to x the problem, each of the points that created the problem were found and a path was manually created into the initial table in order to achieve connectivity to all the NTs without leaving any SPs unconnected. The occurrence of this problem may vary from one to many SP nodes, based on the validity of the provided data from the municipality or from any privet institution that deals with this issue. That is the reason why this step of the planning was put into a dashed line frame in the owchart 7.2 on page 65, because practically it was not part of the data preparation phase but it was found while applying the A algorithm to the total amount of NTs in the area. Following the manual placement of 20 COs in Aalborg commune, k-means clustering algorithm has been implemented separately in every individual region. A maximum of 48 NTs have been assigned to every PCP in the cluster. The centroids of the clusters formed, which denote the PCPs location at the map, have been relocated to the closest known SP, for simplicity reasons, using Euclidean distance algorithm. 1688 PCPs have been placed throughout Aalborg area. Table 7.1 points out the exact number of PCPs assigned in all service regions. CO Number of NTs Number of PCPs 1 1444 31 2 3243 68 3 2208 46 4 4171 90 5 955 20 6 1460 31 7 3560 76 8 5649 117 9 3921 84 10 4417 95 11 2468 52 12 9989 213 13 4721 102 14 6910 148 15 4564 97 16 3352 70 17 2583 54 18 1122 24 19 6661 141 20 6136 129 Table 7.1: Number of SPs and NTs connected
Figure 7.9 on the next page presents all the PCPs found in Aalborg commune. The density of NTs together with the random selection nature of the algorithm account for the distribution of the PCPs in the area. 72
Figure 7.9: PCPs location
Considering the performance of the algorithm, k-means clustering method proves to be a quite good solution to group NTs that are connected to a PCP. However, a specic drawbacks exists. Since the working principle of k-means algorithm is to pick random points initially as cluster centroids, then assign points around them and nally change their position every time a point is assigned to the cluster, it is not possible to know or even assume the computational time of the algorithm. For large regions it might take hours or even days to nd the most appropriate positions of the PCPs and the only solution to this problem is to run the algorithm multiple times. So, this is a huge drawback because we can not rely on previous computational times and region size relationships to help us in further computations [11]. Figure 7.10 on the following page gives a closer look to the area, where CO1 is located and digitally represents the location of the PCPs found in this region and the corresponding NTs to them. In order to have a closer look how exactly the NTs are assigned to the PCPs, a zoom up view in the east part of the region has been made. 5
5 The different colors of the NTs presented in the zoomed view are only used for visualization simplicity. The color that is denoted to the NTs belonging to CO1 can be obtained from 7.6
73
Figure 7.10: PCPs with the corresponding to them NTs
By knowing the exact coordinates of the COs, PCPs, SPs and NTs, a full mapping of all the essential information has become available for an easier planning of the access ber network. Through table 7.1 on page 72, we can easily nd out which NT belongs to which service region and consequently to which PCP is connected to. The A shortest path algorithm has been adopted for the trenching process. Figure 7.11 presents the trenching returned from the A algorithm in test area where CO1 is located.
Figure 7.11: Applied A* algorithm in CO1 region
74
The coloured elements in gure 7.11 on the preceding page denote: Red lines - trenched road network Blue lines - links connecting NTs to the trenched network Green circle - CO1 Purple circles - PCPs Gold circles - NTs Burly-wood circles (on the road network) - SPs The nal step was to calculate the total cost of ber needed to connect every CO with the PCPs as it is shown in equation 7.2, initially, and the NTs lying in every different service region, thereafter. A algorithm has been applied in the already trenched graph to calculate the shortest path between the chosen terminal nodes. Firstly, the bundle of 96 ber cables has been calculated by applying the function astar path(A, CO, P CP i) from networkx python library, where A is the A graph, shown in gure 7.11 on the facing page. The function run for all PCPs present in a service region. To summarize, the algorithmic method followed, which is a more valid real-life solution, was not implemented by the group in the previous semester project and can be treated as an improvement to the existing implementation.
20
T otalcost =
i=1
BFCOi SP LITk
m
) 0.6 +
(TCOi SP 20))
(7.2)
N Tj SP LITK
j =1
where, i [1,20] - Number of BS k [1,1660] - Number of PCPs m 48 NTs BFCOi SP LITk - is the bundle of ber between the ith CO and the k th PCP, divided by the number of NTs connected to that PCP TCOi SP - is the trenching between the ith CO and the terminal SP Table 7.2 on the next page presents the outcome of the A algorithms in all 20 service regions of Aalborg commune. 75
Trenching Length [m] Fiber Length [m] Trenching Cost [e] Fiber Cost [e] Total Cost [e] 147 762 154 529 2 955 240 92 717 3 047 957 CO1 CO2 164 730 158 183 3 294 600 94 909 3 389 509 CO3 118 982 166 697 2 379 640 100 018 2 479 658 CO4 166 570 227 542 3 331 400 136 525 3 467 925 CO5 113 865 61 576 2 277 300 36 945 2 314 245 CO6 89 476 101 046 1 789 520 60 627 1 850 147 CO7 163 797 381 610 3 275 940 228 966 3 504 906 CO8 84 288 221 893 1 685 760 133 135 1 818 895 CO9 90 514 144 814 1 810 280 86 888 1 897 168 CO10 71 581 133 602 1 431 620 80 161 1 511 781 CO11 43 246 56 929 864 920 34 157 899 077 CO12 175 867 508 395 3 517 340 305 037 3 822 377 CO13 65 779 104 435 1 315 580 62 661 1 378 241 CO14 168 811 266 333 3 376 220 159 799 3 536 019 CO15 258 347 518 057 5 166 940 310 834 5 477 774 CO16 146 723 162 066 2 934 460 97 239 3 031 699 CO17 145 096 144 949 2 901 920 86 969 2 988 889 CO18 103 250 55 997 2 065 000 33 598 2 098 598 CO19 188 003 430 000 3 760 060 258 000 4 018 060 CO20 163 164 569 396 3 263 280 341 637 3 604 917 TOTAL 2 669 851 4 564 049 53 397 020 2 740 822 56 137 842 Table 7.2: Comparison between the total Fiber, Digging length and Costs using the Astar algorithm for the PtP architecture, with respect to each CO
Astar
Calculation of the total trenching and ber cost in Aalborg commune assumes 100% FTTH coverage. In real life scenarios, however, the deployment of a FTTH network in a whole commune or municipality is very unlikely, not to say impossible. Such networks are normally built in a scaled manner, starting from the mostly dense areas and expanding to regions further away from the city center. Consequently, it is wrong to estimate the real cost of adding NTs to the access network based on the previous cost calculations. For this purpose, an cost calculation algorithm has been developed and presented in section 8.1 on page 93.
76
7.2
7.2.1
Planning of the xed LTE Access Network

Design Model Assumptions
The wireless network is located in a relatively at environment. No hills, valleys, vegetation or tall buildings that might interfere with the wireless signals. Each BS cell is split into three sectors. All base stations are placed in a honeycomb pattern (as shown in Figure 7.12) to provide ideal coverage to the surrounding area. The network is xed-wireless, where a good-quality roof mounted receiving antenna is used for the receiver to achieve the best possible service. Each cell (and user device) uses two antennas, transmitters and receivers (MIMO technology). Each cell uses 40-Mhz spectrum in the 2100-Mhz band (20 MHz in each of the upstream and downstream directions). Multi-Dwelling Units are treated as single premises. The computation is based on fundamental laws of radio propagation according to Shannon channel capacity. The cost value of each BS is assumed to be the same.
Figure 7.12: Base Station Honeycomb Pattern [48] 77
7.2.2
Problem Formulation
In this LTE BS location problem, the main goal is to select a subset of candidate sites from the set of all possible BS locations in order to nd out where to install the BSs and to assign NTs to the ones that are available by taking into account the trafc demand, the signal quality requirements in terms of Signalnoise-ratio (SNR) and the installation costs. The set of all possible BS locations J = 1, ..., m are obtained by using the procedure presented in 7.2.3 on page 81 and are used as a set of candidate sites where a BS can be installed. In addition, an installation cost is associated with each candidate site. A set of end users (NTs) I = 1, ..., n is also given. Each NT can be considered as a point where a given amount of trafc is requested and where a certain level of service (measured in terms of SIR) must be guaranteed. The two following classes of decision variables are: yj = for j J . xij = 1 0 if ith NT is connected to j th candidate BS otherwise (7.4) 1 0 if j th candidate BS is selected otherwise (7.3)
for i I and j J . The main objective of the planning problem is to maximize the number of NTs covered by a BS. When the capacity of all BSs is fully utilized, their total number is the least possible; consequently, the total cost is minimized. The objective function of the problem is given in equation 7.5:
m n
max
j =1 i=1
yj xij
(7.5)
Subject to:
m
xij 1
j =1 m n
(7.6)
xij 0.95n
j =1 i=1 n
(7.7)
xij yj Nsu
i=1
j J.
(7.8)
Caij xij Catarget yj
i I, j J.
(7.9)
Equation 7.6 states that each NT is only connected to a single BS. There are some NTs which are not connected to any of the BSs. This reduces the extreme increase in the total cost due to some outliers. The planned coverage is 95% of the total amount of NTs in the area as shown in constraint 7.7, which will be 75 558 in Aalborg commune. 78
Equation 7.6 on the preceding page puts a limit on the maximum number of subscribers that can be served by a BS. This number is determined by the BSs capacity and the overbooking factor. Nsu is the maximum number of subscribers that can be served by a single BS which is calculated in sub-section 7.2.2.2 on the following page. For an NT to be connected to a BS, the link capacity between them should be higher or equal to the target capacity(data rate) as formulated in equation 7.9 on the preceding page.Caij is the achievable link capacity (in Mbps) between an NT and the BS it is connected to. Catarget is the target link capacity that should be satised to serve the subscriber with the data rate specied to achieve. The calculation of link capacity is performed using AWGN channel capacity (often called Shannons formula)[49] and the procedure followed is shown in sub-section 7.2.2.1.
7.2.2.1
Link Capacity Calculation
The link capacity in cellular wireless systems is used to decide whether an NT, located some distance away from the BS, can be served with the target data rate specied at the existing conditions. The conditions which affect the link capacity are the trafc in the network (network load), the geographical area of the Network Simulator (NS) (Urban, Suburban and Rural) and the PL. The procedures followed in calculating the link capacity are:
In xed wireless network design, the positions of all NTs is known and the position of BSs can be determined by using different optimization algorithms. After obtaining the xed distance between the NT and the BS it is connected to, it is possible to calculate the PL using one of the models applicable to PL calculation. In this project, the WINNER II model is used. The model takes as an input the geographical scenario (Urban, Suburban and Rural), the carrier frequency (2.1GHz is assumed to be used) and the distance separation between NT and BS (in meters).
40log10 (d) + 13.47 14log10 (hBs ) 14log10 (hM s ) + 6log10 (fc /5) 40log10 (d) + 11.65 16.2log10 (hBs ) PL = 16.2log10 (hM s ) + 3.8log10 (fc /5) 40log10 (d) + 10.5 18.5log10 (hBs ) 18.5log10 (hM s ) + 1.5log10 (fc /5)
in urban scenario in sub-urban scenario in rural scenario (7.10)
where, hM s and hBs are height of Mobile Station (outdoor antenna) and height of Base Station, respectively. The hM s is assumed to be 5m in all scenarios, while hBs is assumed to be 25m in urban and suburban scenarios and 32m in rural scenario. Using the PL result obtained, the received power (Pr ) at the NT can be calculated using the general PL equation shown in 5.1 on page 46. The values used as an input for the PL equation are shown in table 7.3 on the following page[24]. 79
Downlink Uplink Transmitter Power(dBm) 46 23 Transmitter Antenna Gain(dBi) 18 0 Receiver Antenna Gain(dBi) 0 18 Feeder Losses(dB) 2 0 Table 7.3: Input parameters for PL calculation
The calculated received power by the NT will be used to calculate the SNR of the link. The SNR calculation takes the form of: Pr N
SN R =
(7.11)
where, Pr is the Received Power and the variable Noise(N) is obtained by using : N = k T (290K ) B where, k is the Boltzmann constant Finally, the maximum channel capacity is calculated by the Shannon-Hartley relationship: C = B log2 (1 + SN R) (7.12)
where, C is the channel capacity in bits per second (bps), B is the channel bandwidth in Hz and SNR is the signal-to-noise ratio at the receiver. In a MIMO case, the channel capacity is shown in equation 7.13 [18] C B log2 (1 + Nr Nt SN R) where Nt is the number of transmitting antennas and Nr the number of receiving antennas. (7.13)
7.2.2.2
Maximum Number of Subscribers
The dimensioning of the network for the maximum number of subscribers in this project uses the data rate dimensioning approach. The currently average downlink data rate of xed subscriber in Denmark is 14.27Mbps. This rate is expected to increase to 30Mbps in the next few years and by 2020, almost the whole country is expected to have a broadband connectivity of 30Mbps with 60% of the population having access to 100Mbps[50][9]. Using the data rate based dimensioning of LTE shown in gure 5.15 on page 49, with terminal category 3 as cell capacity with specications shown in table 5.5 on page 50 and the expected average data rates shown in table 7.4 on the next page, the maximum number of subscribers per cell is calculated to be used as an input for the design process. 80
Year Average Fixed Broadband Data Rate (in Denmark)
2013 14.27 Mbps
2016 30 Mbps (100% coverage)
2020 100 Mbps (50% coverage)
Table 7.4: Average Data Rate of Fixed Broadband Subscriber
Based on the expected data rate, the next step is to nd the maximum number of subscribers using the data rate dimensioning procedure shown by example in gure 5.15 on page 49. In this project, the busy hour average loading is assumed to be 100% and the overbooking factor is 20. Equation 7.14 shows how to calculated the maximum number of subscribers per site. Nsu = where, Nsu : Maximum Number of Subscribers Ccap : Cell Capacity BHlod : Busy Hour Loading OBF : Overbooking Factor Avg DR : Average Data Rate Table 7.5 shows the maximum number of subscribers obtained until the year 2020. With subscribers average data rates expected to increase, a fewer number of subscribers per site is obtained. 2013 2016 2020 Subscribers/site 420 200 60 Table 7.5: Number of Subscribers per Site that can be served by the proposed LTE Technology Ccap BHload OBF S Avg DR (7.14)
7.2.3
Distribution of potential BSs
When the positions of the potential users are known a priori, it is necessary to nd locations for potential BSs that can provide the required service. In cellular wireless network planning, it is necessary to nd the near-optimal locations for the antennas out of the selected potential locations, in order to provide the best coverage. This is normally found by inspecting the subject area for high buildings and hilltops in order to nd good locations for antenna placement. Practically, it is also necessary to nd out which of the good locations are available for lease. In addition, considerations like power supply, backhaul possibilities and local zoning laws also need to be considered. When all the suitable sites are identied, it is necessary to choose the fewest ones needed to provide the desired coverage satisfying the capacity constraints. Since no information about possible BS locations is available to the group, a grid of hypothetically available locations was created. The number of hypothetical locations are obtained by considering the regions NT density where the network is implemented. 81
The geographical area where this project is implemented is Aalborg. The region is said to be a rural, suburban or urban based on the population density which directly related to the NT density. Using statistical data on population the average NT densities for the three scenarios is obtained. Distinguishing the region into these scenarios primarily helps in the calculations of link budget and selection of possible BS locations. The procedure followed for this implementation is: Using statistical data obtained from eurostat[51], the population density for the three geographical scenarios in Denmark is shown in table 7.6.
Urban 2,245.8 Sub-urban 169.6 [51] Rural 76.0
Table 7.6: Average Population density of Urban, Sub-urban and Rural Denmark
From the given GIS data, the density of every NT is calculated. From the statistical average population density data for each scenario (see table 7.6) and average number of people per house, which is roughly 2.2 people/household in Denmark[52], the average NT density for each scenario is obtained as shown in table 7.7. Finally, the NTs are classied to their respective scenario as urban, suburban or rural.
Urban > 250 Sub-urban 50 - 250 Rural < 50
Table 7.7: NT density of Urban, Sub-urban and Rural Denmark
Based on the NT density ranges obtained for urban, suburban and rural scenarios, the cumulative distribution of NTs in Aalborg region is plotted in gure 7.13 on the next page (purple frame). As expected, from the total number of NTs (79,534), the majority of them (80%) are located in the urban areas with (12%) and (8%) of them located in suburban and rural areas respectively. After nding the NT densities for the three geographical scenarios, the next step was to divide the region in small grids (1km2 ) and nd the candidate BS locations in the region. The process is shown in the following pseudocode:
The initial planning was set for the whole Nordjylland but due to lack of high processing hardware power, the tested region was limited to the commune of Aalborg. Increasing the possible number of BS locations will allow searching of the best position out of the total number of positions which will give a rened result. However, increasing the number of possible locations leads to an undesirable increase in the computational time. As a result, selection of possible BS locations comes up with a trade-off. 82
Figure 7.13: NT Cumulative Distribution in Aalborg commune
Increasing the number of candidate BS sites allows not to miss some attractive locations, while reducing this number is advantageous as computational resources are not wasted by placing them in regions which already have enough locations to choose from.
Figure 7.14: Possible BS Locations 83
7.2.4
LTE Cellular Network Base Station Locations
Finding a minimum number of BS locations with maximum geographical coverage satisfying all the constraints formulated in section 7.14 formulation is an NP hard problem. It is difcult to nd an optimal results in polynomial time using exact algorithms, due to the huge number of possible BS locations and the set of constraints that need to be satised. As a result a sub-optimal or heuristics algorithm is the preferred way of obtaining an approximated feasible solution in polynomial time. Their are a number of heuristic algorithms, with the likes of Greedy algorithm, Simulated annealing and tabu search most commonly used in cellular network planning. In this project greedy algorithm is used to select the minimum number and the position of BSs. This algorithm is selected particularly for its simpler implementation and closer to global optimum results in reasonable time, especially for large dimensioned problems. The general approach of the algorithm is:
Given a set of n inputs.
Find a subset, called feasible solution, of the n inputs subject to some constraints, and satisfying a given objective function.
If the objective function is maximized or minimized, the feasible solution is optimal.
It is a locally optimal method.
The general procedures followed in the implementation are:
Step 1: Choose an input from the input set, based on some criterion. If there are no more input exit.
Step 2: Check whether the chosen input yields a feasible solution. If no, discard the input and goto step 1.
Step 3: Include the input into the solution vector and update the objective function. Goto step 1.
The general approach of the greedy algorithm is used as a base for the problem at hand and it is implemented in a way tting it to the mathematical formulation presented in section 7.2.2 on page 78. The script for the algorithm is written in python and is presented in a form of ow chart in gure 7.15 on the next page. 84
Figure 7.15: Flowchart for the Selection of BS Locations
85
where, Clink : the link capacity between an NT and the BS it is connected to Ctarget : the target data rate expected to be achieved Ri : Maximum coverage range(radius) of BS i The greedy optimization algorithm owchart routine presented in gure 7.15 starts by fetching the data from the database and initially setting the total percentage of NTs expected to be covered by the LTE cellular network. The initial assumption taken in the planning phase was to design a network which covers 100% of the NTs. But, by doing so there are some NTs in the geographical area which are outliers and including them to the network will increases the cost of the network by a huge margin. As a result, the expected coverage is set to 95% of the total NTs to compensate the cost that will be incurred by this outliers. Then, the procedures followed by the algorithm that are shown in the owchart of gure 7.15 are: Initially, from the candidate BS locations found in section 7.2.3 on page 81, n possible locations are selected randomly. The value of n selected has an effect on the computational time and the optimality of the solution. A larger n returns a better solution but computationally expensive. For each of the candidate BSs selected, an NT is assigned starting from the closest one. The assignment is done depending on the links capacity that needs be satised to achieve the target data rate (14.276 Mbps) and the maximum number of NTs per BS limit , which is calculated in section 7.2.2.2 on page 80. Intersection and Radius of the candidate BSs are calculated by counting the number of NTs found in the overlapping region with other BSs and calculating the distance of the farthest NT included to be served respectively. The objective function that is set to be maximized is the one shown in equation 7.5 on page 78. Out of the selected n candidate BSs, the one which gives the maximum number of NTs is selected by the algorithm. The results obtained by using this objective function is not satisfactory. Since it only looks at always maximizing the coverage, the cells obtained are big ones and are also overlapping with each other a lot. If this solution is taken, the throughput that will be achieved at the cell edges will be too low and the overlapping makes further frequency planning much difcult. As a result, this problem arises the modication of the objective function. The modied objective function takes into consideration not only the number of NTs but also the coverage range and intersection of a candidate BS as a decision variables. The coverage radius and intersection are set to be minimized while trying to increase the number of served NTs simultaneously. Since, the problem is an NP-hard, achieving all the there parts of the objective is not possible. An alternative approach is designed which maximizes the objective function in weighted way as shown in equation 7.15. ObjectiveF unction = 0.3 ( Where, Ii Ri Ni ) + 0.4 (1 ) + 0.3 (1 ) N Tmax Imax Rmax (7.15)
86
N T max , Imax and Rmax are the acceptable maximum number of NTs, intersection and radius of BS i respectively. The value of N T max is 420, Rmax is 5km a range to have good throughput in LTE and Imax is selected to be 300 after a number of simulations for better performance. The weights in the objective function represents the inuence each decision variable has in the selection of a candidate BS from the other candidates. This weights are chosen after they returned better results from a number of simulations when compared to the other weights. In general, this approach gives a much improved solution from the initially assumed basic objective function. The same procedure is repeated until the target coverage is reached, with every iteration selecting the local optimal and at the end expecting to obtain an approximated global optimal solution. The algorithm stops when the initially set target of 95% coverage is fullled. The implementation of this algorithm founds a minimum number of 180 LTE BSs to serve 95% of the NTs with an average capacity requirements of 14.276 Mbps in downlink as shown gure 7.16. The BSs have different cell ranges, number of NTs inside their range and antenna heights depending on the geographical scenario they are located. Table 7.8 present how many BS are connected to each CO. As we can see the number of BS varies between 1 to 23 due to the uneven NT distribution in each out of the 20 regions.
Figure 7.16: Digital representation of 95% coverage of Aalborg NTs achieved by 180 BSs
87
NB: The nal BS locations obtained and shown in gure 7.16 on the previous page is not an optimal but a sub optimal one. There are still some overlapping and interference between neighboring cells which is translated to interference. The cells need a good frequency planning to reduce the interference. The detailed discussion of frequency planning is beyond the scope of this project and is not considered. The selected BSs have to be connected to the backbone network through the COs using a high capacity backhaul. As discussed in subsection 5.2.2.1 on page 50, from the different high capacity backhaul options, ber cables are the ones used in this project. Since, this connection adds additional cost to the cellular network, it should be optimized to make it as minimum as possible. The procedure of optimization starts by selecting a BS and connecting it to the closest CO in-order to reduce the total trenching and ber cable needed. The connection path follows the road network, since the ber is buried in the road side. There are different kinds of Shortest path algorithms which are applicable to this specic problem and the A* shortest path algorithm was selected for its reasonable computational time, which is explained in detail in section 7.1.4 on page 66. The 180 BSs are categorized to the 20 COs using this algorithm as shown in gure 7.16 on the preceding page.
Figure 7.17: Matplot digital representation of the area served by CO4 and the corresponding trenching paths
88
Since the trenching between the COs and the BSs achieved by the A is not visible for the reader a zoomed view in the region of CO4 is made. Figure 7.17 on the preceding page presents CO4 region and the corresponding trenching paths between CO4 and each of the SPs in the region. These trenches are denoted by red lines while the blue lines correspondence to the trenching between the CO4 (denoted as red circle) and the total amount of BSs (denoted as pink circles).
CO Number of BS
1 7
2 8
3 5
4 5 10 1
6 4
7 7
8 9 13 8
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 8 6 23 9 16 9 8 5 4 14 15
Table 7.8: Total number of BSs connected to each CO
Practically, the total number of BSs (180) obtained for the region of Aalborg seems to be quite high. A test case is taken to compare it to a situation which looks much closer to the existing LTE cellular network. This test case will give as a good insight into the achievable throughput and the possibility of using it as an alternative for high speed xed broadband. 20 BSs are selected as a xed network option to serve the whole region. The modications made (for the test case) in the following design procedure are:
The 20th COs selected to connect the access network to the backbone network in the previous design can not be used for this case. Their number should be decreased, because the assumption taken in the test case is that the total number of BSs in the whole region should be 20. Based on the density of the NTs in the region only 2 COs were selected with their location as shown in gure 7.18 on the following page.
The BSs should be located in the geographical areas to give a maximum coverage area and the NTs covered should be maximized as well. Since the number of BSs is already set to be 20, its preferable to use K-means clustering algorithm to nd their optimal location and NTs served. The general procedure followed by the algorithm are:
It starts with 20 initial BS locations as a centroids to a group of closest NTs to be served by it. In every iteration, the centroid point is moved to a center when new NTs are included, until the position change by a move becomes insignicant. How the algorithm works is discussed in detain in section 7.1.4.2 on page 67. The total number of NTs in the region is 79,534. With an ideally fair distribution, the average number of NTs per BS is expected to be around 4000. Based on this average number and adding a margin of safety, the maximum number of NTs that can be clustered together is set to 5000. A margin of safety is needed to decrease the possibility of grouping NTs to farthest clusters, when the capacity of the closest BS is fulleld. Using this procedure a coverage of around (93%) of the total NTs is achieved. Trying to achieve a 100% coverage leads to quiet large radius cells with some of the far away located NTs making the whole design unstable. 89
Figure 7.18: Digital representation of 95% coverage of Aalborg NTs achieved by 20 BSs
The location of the BSs and the number of NTs they will be serving obtained by k-means clustering is shown in gure 7.18 and table 7.9 respectively.
CO Number of NTs
1 1702
2 2333
3 4929
4 3074
5 1814
6 5000
7 5000
8 5000
9 5000
10 3318
11 3486
12 3783
13 5000
14 4026
15 5000
16 2937
17 1645
18 2506
19 3673
20 4114
Table 7.9: Total number of NTs connected to each BS
The minimum achievable throughput per user occurs in BSs serving the maximum number of NTs. This throughput can be calculated using the LTE capacity dimensioning procedure presented in gure 5.15 on page 49 and rearranging formula 7.14 on page 81. The cell capacity, overbooking factor and number of sectors are (100 Mbps Downlink, 50 Mbps Uplink), 20 and 3 respectively. The average downlink data(Avg. DL) rate achivable by a user in busiest cell is:
Avg.DL = (100M bps 100% 20 3)/(5000) = 1.2M bps 90
(7.16a) (7.16b)
The average uplink data rate(Avg. UL) achivable by a user in busiest cell is:
Avg.U L = (50M bps 100% 20 3)/(5000) = 0.6M bps
(7.17a) (7.17b)
The average data rates obtained in equation 7.16b on the facing page and equation 7.17b are acceptable ones for mobile subscribers. For xed broadband subscribers this values are too low to be used as a competitive or alternative option with ber or even VDSL. Therefore, for LTE to be used as a xed technology, higher number of BSs should be used in addition to the throughput improvements gained by the technology itself.
91
Chapter
Economic Analysis
A concrete business model stands as an essential part of a network planning project. Many factors should be analysed prior to deploying a broadband network: Financial needs - What is the total cost expenditure of the new network? How and from where will funding be secured in case the capital available is insufcient? What are the alternative options in the planning process that can lower the nal expenditure while satisfying the predened targets? Revenue - What is the time plan set for depreciation of the network infrastructure? Does the estimated revenue justify the risk of such an investment? Competition - What is the existing network infrastructure in the area where the new network is set to be deployed? What are the offered services from other telcos and how big is the penetration in the existing services? Customers - Which are the potential customers of the new services? What is the motivation for these customers to decide a change of service provider? Risks - How big is the nancial risk of the investment? How attractive is this business opportunity versus alternate options? Marketing plan - How will the potential customers be reached? How will they be retained? How should the pricing policy be determined? How are the new services going to be advertised? All the above economical factors, and in particular cases many more, should be well dened by a telco who intends to deploy a new network infrastructure in an area. However, specic ones tend to be very critical not only for the business strategy set but also for the network design process. The type of target customers is essential factor that should be determined. Potential customers utilizing the broadband network should be prioritized. Industrial zones, governmental agencies, buildings of public interest, buildings that host big-size enterprises, should be the rst priority customers connected to the new network. Providing service to these end users and being able to retain them is essential move for a successive business plan. However, this fact is very much bound to whether a broadband network infrastructure already exists. In that case, sensitive information regarding, for instance, the offered bandwidth from a competitor telco should be known. Based on this knowledge, an assessment of the big-customers willingness 92
CHAPTER 8. ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
to alter a service provider can be made. Consequently, awareness of the competition as well as existing infrastructure are also very important parameters that affect directly the design procedure. On top of all, calculation of total capital expenditure needed to deploy the broadband network, is a direct output of the planning process. Evaluation of the total capital expenditure, resulted by proper designing, will determine if and up to what extend such a network can be deployed. Knowing the aforementioned priceless information, a network designer can adjust his planning to the present business challenges. The current project lies somewhat far from the business strategy principal of a real life scenario implementation. The economic model is based on the CAPEX of deploying both LTE and ber on the local loop. Two algorithms for the ber case cost calculation have been developed and are presented thoroughly in section 8.1: The rst one, calculates the cost of adding new customers to the ber network based on density. When a group of customers that belong to the same area (rural, suburban, urban) is added to the network, the cost of trenched road segments and ber within this group is shared among the endusers. The algorithm assumes already existing trenched path from the CO until an end-user that belongs to this group, so the cost of the shortest path for connecting the group of users to the CO is not included in the cost calculation. The second one, calculates the real cost of end-users, without considering existing trenched paths. Trenched road segments and ber needed to connect every NT to the corresponding PCP is included in the cost calculation, starting from the CO and advancing gradually to the NTs at the regions borders. LTE cost calculation was achieved in a more straightforward way and is presented in section 8.2 on page 100. Moreover, a deployment timescale comprising of a 4-years step has been dened for deploying the hybrid infrastructure, starting from year 2013 and ending up at year 2020. European committee has set as a target of 100 Mbps for at least 50% of European households by the end of 2020[9]. Based on this fact, a migration process from LTE for xed broadband connectivity to FTTH throughout this time period is presented in section 8.3 on page 101.
8.1
Fiber access network cost Calculation
Selecting which areas to be served by FTTH network is a complex procedure. The reason for this is that the NT density is not uniformly distributed throughout the area and their total number is very big (79534). As a result, the CAPEX differs from region to region, whether it is rural, suburban or urban. Various algorithmic approaches can be used to solve such a complex combinatorial problem. Two algorithms are implemented and presented in sections 8.1.1 and 8.1.2 on page 97, that deal with the specied problem.
8.1.1
Cost calculation Algorithm 1
This algorithm calculates the cost of adding groups of customers that have the same density and lie in the same area within every region: rural, suburban or urban. It returns the cost N T for all the NTs in Aalborg commune and is implemented in python. Flowchart 8.1 on the next page presents how the algorithm works. Intuitively, what it does is to start from the leaf nodes (farthest NT from the CO) and traverse towards the root node (CO). It pretty much 93
looks like the Depth First Search (DFS) algorithm[53], however, instead of starting from the root node and advancing towards the leaf nodes, it functions in a reverse way.
Figure 8.1: Algorithm for calculating cost per NT(s) added to the ber access network
94
where, N Tcur - current NT N Tprev - previous NT SPmarked - SP of degree > 2 Areacur - current area; Dened as Rural (NT density 50), Suburban (50 < NT density < 250) and Urban (250 NT density) Areaprev - area where the previous visited NT lies N Ttotal - total number of NTs in every separate region N Tvisited - discovered NTs N Tlef t - remaining NTs (not discovered yet) At the initial stage of the algorithm, all the relevant data collected in tables 10.7 on page 127 and 10.8 on page 128, located in Appendix C ( IV on page 124), in the database are fetched into the script. The algorithm runs separately for every CO-region. The process begins by nding the further away terminal SP from the CO using A algorithm from networkx python library. Terminal SP is considered as a SP that is connected to at least a single NT. The density of the 1st NT connected to that SP (calculated as explained in 7.2.3 on page 81) is fetched from the database. Depending on the density value, the area is categorized as Rural, Suburban or Urban. Before comparing whether the current NT lies in the same area with the previous visited NT, we check if we are in a branch in the A tree. In graph theory, a branch of a tree subdivides the nodes of the tree into two subsets; the members of a cutset should have one end in each subsets[54]. Cases of branches in the A tree are presented clearly in gure 8.2 on the following page. If the current NT belongs to the same area, for instance rural, it is deleted from the total number of NTs. If more NTs are connected to the current SP, they are iteratively deleted. After deleting the visited NTs, the next SP connected to the current SP is found. The new SP is examined whether it is a terminal node. If it is, the road segment formed by the previous and the current SP (SPprev , SPcur ) is saved and the whole process is repeated. If it is not a terminal node, it iterates until it nds the next terminal SP and saves the intermediate road segments that it passes by. As advancing towards the CO, if an area with different density limits is entered, for instance from rural to suburban area, the marked nodes are checked. These nodes are SPs of degree higher than 2. A road segment is formed between a marked node and an undiscovered SP, not visited during the initial run. In the same manner as before, density of NTs belonging to that undiscovered branch is searched and all road segments are saved, until all branches are examined.
95
When no more marked SPs are left, the total cost of the NTs belonging to the same group is calculated and is equally shared between them. It includes: Trenching cost of the saved road segments divided by the number of of NTs that share it Bundle of ber cost connecting the CO with the corresponding PCP divided by the number of NTs that are served by this PCP The total number of discovered NTs so far is subtracted from the total number of NTs in the region and the whole process launches again. The code is terminated when all NTs are discovered.
Figure 8.2: Example of the algorithm run in a small part of south-west part of Aalborg area
Figure 8.2 presents a part of the trenched road network in area served by CO1. The red lines form the trenched road network while the teal lines are the links connecting the NTs to the road network. The algorithm starts at SP1 and traverses through the graph following the direction depicted by the red arrow. When it reaches SP37 it stops, as we entered a suburban area (Bubble 2) while, previously, we were in a rural one (Bubble 1). Five SPs of degree > 2 are initially marked : [SP4, SP7, SP10, SP14, SP17]. SP25 is marked when NTs included in branch 3 are discovered. The blue arrows denote the direction which the discovery process follows when the algorithm starts checking for NTs in the branches. Every time that a segment is discovered, for example segment (SP4, SP5), it is saved in order not to be picked again. When the algorithm reaches SP19, for instance, no undiscovered path exists to follow the search, as degree of SP19 = 1. At that point, the algorithm starts the discovery process again from the next marked SP in the list, which is SP7. The results obtained by the algorithm are collected in table 8.1 on the facing page, in form of average CAPEX for the three types of areas as well as for every CO. 96
CO1 CO2 CO3 CO4 CO5 CO6 CO7 CO8 CO9 CO10 CO11 CO12 CO13 CO14 CO15 CO16 CO17 CO18 CO19 CO20 TOTAL AVG
Rural [e] 4429 4147 3455 4507 4132 3842 3602 5442 5944 3329 4259 3399 4899 4208 5298 4639 4084 4134 5243 4150
Suburban [e] 755 826 1099 818 657 650 781 648 684 654 1676 1104 1841 1198 1064 1087 940 924 706 782 945
Urban [e] 645 371 443 375 398 481 310 393 318 363 296 280 326 429 374 402 354 465 378 370
Total Avg [e] 1943 1781 1665 1900 2394 1630 1621 2133 2340 1433 1019 1886 1840 2141 1900 2253 1993 1787 1768 2134 1878
Table 8.1: Average CAPEX per household for Rural, Suburban and Urban areas in Aalborg returned by the cost calculation algorithm 8.1 on page 94
Looking at table 8.1, it is clear that deploying a FTTH network in rural areas is inappropriate, as the average total cost in the area is much higher when compared to the rest. This cost is 4.5 times more than suburban and almost 11 times more than urban, making it a high-cost investment in the immediate future. On the other hand, the average total expenditure in urban areas is comparable with the average CAPEX of LTE technology, as it can be seen in gure 8.5 on page 101. This fact demonstrates that, currently, urban areas should be preferred for FTTH deployment, while expansion of the network in the rest areas depends on the future trafc demands.
8.1.2
Cost calculation Algorithm 2
The second algorithm implemented does not take into consideration the subscribers density or existing infrastructure. Instead, it calculates the cost N T for all the NTs lying in an area served by a single CO, starting from the CO location. This cost accounts for the cost of trenched road segments from the CO until every terminal SP and bundle of ber until a PCP. This cost is shared equally among each NT that exploits the trenched segments so as to be connected to the network. The detailed routine followed by the algorithm is presented in owchart 8.3 on the next page. 97
Figure 8.3: Algorithm 2 for calculating cost per NT(s)
, where i [1,20] i I: set of COs j J: set of terminal SPs Tj 1 = All trenched segments between (COi ,P CPk ), where k stands for the number of PCPs in every CO-region Tj 2 = All trenched segments between (P CPk ,SPj ) if / Tj 1 Tj = All trenched segments needed by each NT to connect to the CO S = Includes all Tj from each CO 98
Tj
T renchingcost = ( counterj /
x=1
N T s) 20, where X is a set of the road segments from the CO

y =1
until the terminal SP, Y is a set of the NTs sharing that trench and counterj shows the number of times a trench is shared between every terminal SP (and consequently, between all N Ty )
X Y
Bundleof f ibercost = (
x=1
Tj /
y =1
N T s) 0.6, where X is a set of the road segments from the
CO until the terminal SP and Y is a set of the NTs sharing that trench The algorithm works region by region. Initially, A algorithm is applied from COi until the PCP that serves every NT and again from the previous PCP until the SP that corresponds to the closest connection point on the road network outside every end-users premise. Road segments needed to connect a terminal SP to the CO are saved in lists Tj and S . In the second list, segments from all terminal SPs in the same area are also saved, creating duplicate segment-pairs in list S . List Tj is compared with list S , segment by segment, and a counter (counterj - corresponds to every terminal SPj ) counts how many times the cost of a road segment is shared among the NTs connected to SPy . Based on that counter, the shared trenching cost is calculated . The algorithm exits when cost of NTs in all 20 regions is calculated. The results obtained by the algorithm are are shown graphically in gure 8.4, in form of average CAPEX for every region. The dense populated areas can be easily pinpointed as they pose the least average cost. The total average cost in the whole area is 938.5 e, almost half of the total average cost returned by Algorithm 1 ( 8.1 on page 97).
Figure 8.4: Average total cost per household in whole area
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8.2
LTE Cellular Network Cost Calculation
Initial LTE roll-out is relatively expensive to deploy. As a result, operators have taken a cautious approach to LTE deployment and marketing. This deployment process, in the short to mid-term, can benet from existing GSM/UMTS infrastructures, minimizing the acquisition of new sites by reusing existing ones. In this section, the initial deployment cost of an LTE BS and its connection to the backhaul(CO) through ber, are calculated and presented. The cost considered is only the CAPEX, which is discussed in section 5.2.3 on page 52. The calculations are based on cost value assumptions of CAPEX elements shown in table 8.2.
CAPEX
BS Cost Trenching Cost Fiber Cost [55]
17 000 e/ site 20e/ m 0.6e/ m
Table 8.2: Capex elements cost assumptions for LTE network design
Using the cost assumptions stated in table 8.2, the total cost expenditure for deploying an LTE network, covering the 95% of the whole regions population, is calculated based on the designed network in section 7.2.4 on page 84. BS [e] Fiber [e] Trenching [e] Total [e] 170 000 34 473 763 276 967 749 85 000 6 545 212 580 304 125 102 000 15 186 358 016 475 202 153 000 13 176 369 978 536 154 34 000 3 377 105 160 142 537 34 000 2 202 58 709 94 912 153 000 26 478 645 309 824 787 187 000 12 660 325 388 525 049 153 000 9 438 250 925 413 364 153 000 6 677 142 743 302 421 102 000 4 654 125 461 232 116 357 000 27 758 497 527 882 286 153 000 5 009 116 216 274 226 272 000 16 103 354 626 642 730 153 000 28 960 670 687 852 648 136 000 12 848 368 304 517 152 102 000 11 517 273 070 386 587 34 000 2 850 95 031 131 882 255 000 28 565 573 289 856 855 272 000 43 294 644 622 959 917 Table 8.3: Total cost of LTE deployment in each CO
CO1 CO2 CO3 CO4 CO5 CO6 CO7 CO8 CO9 CO10 CO11 CO12 CO13 CO14 CO15 CO16 CO17 CO18 CO19 CO20
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The BS equipment, trenching and ber costs needed to connect it to a CO is divided among the NTs it is serving. If a trench is used by a number of BSs, the cost is shared among them equally. The results obtained are presented in table 8.3 on the facing page. In addition, average deployment cost per NT of the network in different geographical scenarios (urban, sub-urban and rural) is also calculated for those connected to the network. The procedure followed is a straight-forward one, with all NTs served by a BS sharing the total cost expenditure of their cell. Figure 8.5 shows the calculated average cost per NT. This cost is higher in rural areas in comparison to urban and suburban. Since the BS cost is equal for each cell (8.2), the difference in cost comes from the trenching and ber used in the backhaul to connect the BSs to the corresponding CO. The long trenching and ber length required in rural scenario is the reason for the cost increase. Practically, the cost per user varies in different area scenarios due to a number of factors, such as site rental, electricity and legislation. The rent of a BS is dependent on its location and is much cheaper to install BSs in rural areas rather than urban or suburban areas. Also, the legislation concerning public places and property usage is much stricter in urban than rural areas, which makes site acquisition difcult. To conclude, looking at some of the factors which affect the cost of deployment in longer timescale, an LTE network deployment is expected to be cheaper in rural areas rather than urban or suburban.
Figure 8.5: Average LTE deployment Cost-per-User in Urban, Suburban and Rural
8.3
Migration
Migration from one technology to another is a principally subjective procedure for any company that wishes to launch it. Nevertheless, the target is the same: being able to keep up in the competition and increase future revenue. The broadband strategy of every telco is unique, depending on many factors, such as possession of different legacy systems, regulations, competitive environments, operational domains, deployment timescales, etc. Therefore, it is not feasible to make all encompassing recommendations for network migration options. Migration can occur with various technological forms, such as from a wire-line to a wire-line network (VDSL to FTTH), a wireless to a (hybrid) wire-line network (WiMax to FTTC, a wireless to a wireless network (UMTS to LTE) etc., depending on the present and future strategies of each telco. In most cases, migration is initiated progressively and advances gradually within 101
a set time interval. It is very uncommon for a telco to decide a total change of strategy and launch a green-eld network deployment, defying the already owned infrastructure. All cost implications should be taken into account while migrating from one technology to another. For such strategical shift, the nancial resources required will be high, unless the trafc demands grow so large that migrating to a specic technology (FTTH in this project) will prove to be a preferred solution. In this project, migration from LTE, for xed broadband access, to FTTH is examined, both being greeneld implementations. During the migration process, increasing number of end-users are connected to the ber network while at the same time, LTE coverage is decreasing. This results in a CAPEX increase from the operators point of view. A reasonable question can arise regarding the utilization of the BSs when users, previously served by LTE, are migrating to the ber access network. In that case, these BSs can be used by the telco to provide services for its mobile customers in the area. Since they are dimensioned for xed broadband connectivity, their capacity allows to serve quite high number of mobile users. Another way of raising a payback to the telco owning these BSs would come by leasing them to another mobile operator. This decision should be taken after analysing the economical impact of such a purchase. This project was not conducted within a telcos framework; hence, no starting capital threshold is limiting the research on the deployment and migration phases. Consequently, the work ow followed a reverse mode. An initial ber coverage target is set that gradually increases during the time interval in the migration phase. These target values shall form the basis of analysing the economic impact of migrating from LTE to ber. The pattern follows three phases of 35-50-65% ber coverage plan during the time period 2013-2016-2020[9], respectively. In the rst phase of deployment, around 35% of households are targeted to be covered by ber. Every NT is equivalent to one common household, without being labelled as a premise, building structure, school, governmental building, enterprise, factory, etc. As we are heading to 2020, more NTs are migrated from LTE to the FTTH network, aiming at a ber coverage of around 65% of the total households. From the remaining 35% of NTs, not all of them will be served by LTE, because the initial target set for pure LTE coverage is 95% out of the total population (see subsection 7.2.2 on page 78). To nd the least cost NTs in the whole area to connect to the network, the algorithms presented in section 8.1 on page 93 were applied. Initially, Algorithm 1 8.1.1 on page 93 has been tested. The coverage results for NTs during the migration process are presented in gure 8.6 on the next page. The areas picked by the algorithm to be covered with ber in many cases are not reasonable for a greeneld implementation scenario. Groups of NTs further away from dense areas where a CO is located are covered by ber during the initial migration phase while others, located closer to that CO are covered in later phases. Obviously, the cost of connecting these NTs to the network is higher than the ones located very close to a CO, as the trenching cost needed to reach the farthest NTs affects heavily their total CAPEX. However, as it was already mentioned in section 8.1.1 on page 93, Algorithm 1 calculates the cost of NTs based on density, assuming the existence of trenched ber path until this group of nodes. Consequently, areas are not picked by the actual deployment cost but by the average cost of the group (rural, suburban or urban) they belong to and adding them to the already existing network as shown in table 8.1 on page 97. It is considered, that Algorithm 1 is more applicable in case of a brown-eld wireline network deployment, in its current form. Optimizing the algorithm and calculating the accurate nal cost of each NT is expected to improve the nal outcome. For this reason, Algorithm 2 is preferred for applying the migration process and, from this point on, the analysis will focus on the second cost calculation method.
102
Figure 8.6: LTE users migration towards 35-50-65% FTTH coverage using Algorithm 1
In gures 8.6 and 8.12 on page 107, the colored points stand for: Red: 35% household ber coverage - 1st deployment phase
Green: 50% household ber coverage - 2nd deployment phase
Purple: 65% household ber coverage - 3rd deployment phase
Due to the unsatisfactory results obtained by Algorithm 1 in green-eld deployment scenario, Algorithm 2 is implemented which gives much better results. The implementation of this algorithm starts by calculating the cost per NT in the whole region. Figure 8.7 on the following page presents the Cumulative cost for ber and LTE networks in Aalborg commune. Distribution Function (CDF) of user 103
Figure 8.7: Cost CDF plot for designed Fiber and LTE access networks Based on the cost distribution and together with the three phase target plan set, it is easy to extract the cost threshold below which ber deployment is prioritized. During the rst deployment phase, all NTs with cost 202 eare selected and connected to the ber network. In the next two phases, the cost threshold increases to 306 and 459 e, respectively. These cost thresholds were integrated into Algorithm 2 and produced the nal ber coverage in the whole region, as presented in gure 8.12 on page 107. Expansion of ber coverage using Algorithm 2 is smoother and more logical than the one resulted from Algorithm 1. Some extreme cases also exist in some areas, where a pair of NTs connected to the same SP are added to the network in two different deployment phases.
Figure 8.8: K-means clustering inuence on calculation of shared NTs cost with Algorithm 2 This apparent aw happened due to the PCP placement approach used. The total cost of every NT, as explained in section 8.1.2 on page 97, is derived by the total trenching and ber bundle cost that it shares with a varying number of NTs. When compared to the trenching cost, the bundle of ber cost 104
is negligible. Hence, it is expected that both NTs should be included in the same deployment phase as they are connected to the same terminal SP. But this might not be the case, since they are connected to a different PCP, which leads to a different individual nal cost. The algorithm, rstly trenches until the PCP and then reaches the NT. This behaviour is presented clearly in gure 8.8 on the preceding page. All NTs connected to SP1 except for NT5 are connected to the network in the rst deployment phase. Instantaneously, such fact seems wrong. This case happens because NT5 is connected to PCP2, even though its closest connection point is PCP1, whose capacity is full. According to the clustering algorithm used and presented in section 7.1.4.2 on page 67, NT5 will be served by the next closest PCP, which is PCP2. This affects negatively the cost of connecting NT5. In addition to the cost it shares with the NTs connected to the same terminal SP, it also has to share the cost of trenching the road from CO until PCP2 (all segments staring from CO until PCP2). These additional trenches result in a high total cost of deployment for NT5. If the cost calculation per NT is implemented from the CO until each NT, without considering PCPs in the way, such cases will be signicantly minimized. Obviously, as bundled ber cables are commonly used in PtP implementations, optimising the k-means clustering algorithm or distributing the PCPs based on a more efcient method is preferable. After selecting the regions with the least expensive ber deployment, the remaining regions are covered by xed LTE networks as shown in gure 8.12 on page 107. Using the initial cellular network designed in section 7.2.4 on page 84, and leaving out the areas which are going to be served by ber in the near future, the target group of NTs is singled out. From the initially designed green-eld LTE network with 180 BSs, the number of NTs covered by them decreases progressively as the penetration of ber increases. However, there are some areas (especially in rural) which are not going to be covered by ber in the targeted three phases of deployment. For the BSs which are found in this area, the decrease in the number of NTs they are serving due to migration is minimal. The majority of them are still serving more than 350 NTs. This kind of areas are the ones where high revenue can be obtained by deploying xed LTE, as a replacement technology for ber. When moving to a more dense area, the ber penetration also increases leading to a sharp decline in the number of xed LTE users. This is clearly seen from the results obtained in the three deployment phases in suburban and more severely in urban areas as shown in gure 8.9. The effect of ber deployment in rural is not visible because of the expensive deployment cost.
Figure 8.9: The decline in number of NTs connected to xed LTE
Figure 8.10: Rise in number of ber connected NTs in deployment phases 105
However, all BSs still have some number of NTs to serve even after 65% ber coverage. Most BSs in the urban area have less than 50 NTs to serve, which are not incorporated to the ber network. It is not practically feasible to deploy a BS for these number of users, while with the BSs full capacity it is possible to serve up to 420 users. As a result, it is necessary to set a threshold and deploy a BS where the number of users that can be served are closer to the maximum one. A minimum value of 250 NTs per BS has been set as a threshold for installing it. With this limitation, the total number BSs is calculated as shown in table 8.4 for the three deployment phases.
1st phase 2nd phase 3rd phase No of BSs 100 58 31 Table 8.4: Total number of BSs in the three deployment phases
In the urban areas, most BS are not included since the number of NTs per BS is not satisfying the dened threshold. In suburban areas, these numbers are uctuating around the threshold value and in most rural areas, it exceeds 380 households. The other case taken into consideration is the migration of users inside a completely overlapping BS from the initially obtained results, as shown in gure 8.11. In the nal designed network there are some completely overlapping BSs, whose capacity is not fully utilized. In this occasion, it is viable to combine the users inside a single BS together and remove the BS with the smaller coverage range. The drawback of this case is that the number of subscribers incorporated in the new cell will be higher than the maximum limit set in dimensioning, which in turn reduces the throughput achievable by the end user.
Figure 8.11: Migrating users between overlapping LTE BSs
A test case for migration between LTE BSs is considered by taking two completely overlapped BSs with a total number of 567 NTs served by them, and combined together into a single cell. The average downlink throughput achievable by the NTs in the cell using equation 7.14 on page 81 is: Avg DR = 10.58M bps 106 (8.1)
This value is lower than the target data rate set initially (14.28), though acceptable. In case the target capacity is mandatory to be achieved, there is always the possibility of increasing the cell capacity. The nal deployment plan shown in gure 8.12 is the combined result of overlapping BSs aggregation and number of BSs obtained for the 3rd deployment phase.
Figure 8.12: LTE users migration towards 35-50-65% FTTH coverage using algorithm 2
The results from the migration process are shown in table 8.5 on the following page and also gure 8.13 on the next page. For the three phases set, the percentage of end-users covered by both technologies in every region is presented. 107
Fiber Coverage(%) LTE Coverage(%) Total(%)
1st phase 35 54 89
2nd phase 50 36 86
3rd phase 65 20 85
Table 8.5: Three Phase Theoretical* Coverage of Fiber and LTE
* -The number of BSs are the ones obtained in the design phase. Throughout the implementation the 3rd phase total number of BSs is used (31). To achieve a coverage of 54% with LTE, a deployment of 100 BSs is necessary. In the designed planned network, shown in gure 8.12 on the preceding page, 31 BSs are installed during the initial deployment phase, rather than 100, resulted from the 1st phase. This decision is made as the ones obtained from the 3rd phase are the ones that will be used in the long run. Deploying 100 BSs is not a feasible approach since during the upcoming years most NTs served by them will migrate to ber.
Figure 8.13: Migration of users from LTE to Fiber Having designed the hybrid network and stating the migration process, there are some NTs which will remain temporarily un-connected to neither networks for a certain period of time while some will never be connected. In the design of a hybrid network, a decision made in favour of some parameters will have a negative effect in the other one. In reality, those users who are not connected can still choose from other alternative legacy networks. Before ending the analysis on the migration process, total CAPEX in each CO has been calculated for all implemented network versions. Table 8.6 on the next page presents the nal results per technology, using Algorithm 2 for the ber cost calculation and the greedy approach for the LTE. By deploying the proposed hybrid architecture, the nal cost achieved is considered quite low for a xed broadband 108
deployment in a big commune like Aalborg. The total cost is less than half of a global ber deployment, though achieving coverage of 85% of the population. In cases of areas characterized as rural, like areas served by CO5, CO6 and CO18, the total decrease is signicant, reaching the levels of 7, 4 and 6 times less implementation cost, respectively. Fiber(100%) [e] LTE(95%) [e] Hybrid(85%) [e] CO1 3 047 957 967 614 839 056 CO2 3 389 522 304 125 1 111 128 CO3 2 479 669 476 099 1 139 330 CO4 3 467 940 536 120 1 475 683 CO5 2 314 261 142 537 331 643 CO6 1 850 160 94 912 452 014 CO7 3 504 909 824 799 1757 024 CO8 1 818 914 556 128 1 497 907 CO9 1 818 914 556 128 1 152 785 CO10 1 511 792 302 421 1 188 773 CO11 899 078 232 861 593 908 CO12 3 517 346 895 388 2 778 257 CO13 1 378 249 280 454 1 002 932 CO14 3 536 038 678 112 1 761 820 CO15 5 477 780 852 648 2 064 279 CO16 3 031 718 519 337 1 311 370 CO17 2 988 896 386 587 1 100 055 CO18 2 098 612 131 882 359 675 CO19 4 018 068 859 199 2 504 095 CO20 3 604 933 959 917 2 313 831 TOTAL 55 833 040 10 414 513 26 735 576 Table 8.6: Total CAPEX in Fiber, LTE and Hybrid architectures
In conclusion, rural areas are preferable for LTE deployment while urban ones are appropriate for the ber access network, as a starting point. In dense urban areas, even the cost of deploying a ber access network is comparable with LTE. 26.7million eis considered a satisfactory cost for a broadband network deployment of that scale and a total coverage of 85%.
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Part III
Conclusion and Future work
110
Chapter
Conclusion
The need for high-speed connectivity is ever increasing. Peoples desire to live in an area where high speed connection is available is set among their rst priorities. At the time speaking, different kind of technologies can be used for providing high-speed xed broadband connectivity to the end-users premise, based on the (theoretical) data rates they can achieve. Out of these technological options, FTTH and LTE were the core of this projects research. A hybrid FTTH - LTE network design in Aalborg commune was presented, focusing on minimizing the infrastructural total cost per user, from the operators point of view. The planning procedure was run in parallel for the two technologies, achieving 100% and 95% NT coverage in the ber and LTE case, respectively. Two algorithms have been implemented in the ber planning case for minimizing the total cost, one based on density (Algorithm 1) and the other based on the shared trenching to connect to the network (Algorithm 2). A greedy algorithmic approach has been implemented in the LTE design case for solving the complex combinatorial problem of optimally placing the minimum number of BSs in the area, thus minimizing the cost, while achieving the highest possible coverage. Based on these deployments, a rule has been dened for migrating users from LTE to FTTH: 35% of the NTs, demanding the lower deployment cost, has been connected to the ber access network in year 2013. During the next implementation phase, which reaches until year 2016, 15% more households are connected with ber. Finally, the migration process ends at year 2020, when, in total, 65% of households are owning FTTH connectivity. The expected deployment decline of LTE in the years of ber migration is 54%, 36% and 20% in years 2013, 2016 and 2020, respectively. However, the deployment of high capacity BSs in areas where they are predened in the planning process to be served by ber in the upcming years, is not economically feasible. Therefore, the LTE deployment is designed for those areas where the time period for ber connection takes longer. Generally, the migration pattern shows that it is preferable to start connecting NTs from the dense areas with ber and to use LTE as an alternative technology for rural areas. In the nal hybrid architecture access to the network has been achieved for around 85% of the total population by the use of these high capacity technologies. In every technological migration case, a pattern should direction the whole process so as to avoid deviating from the nal target set. Depending on the nal outcome, some initial parameters can be xed, planning options can be optimised, several aspects integrated in the design phase can be reconsidered. The nal results achieved in the present project are regarded quite good, though space for optimisation apparently always exists.
111
Chapter
10
Future work
This project deals with various design techniques and hard combinatorial problems that near-optimal solution is hardly achievable. There is always space for improvement, either by optimising the currently used techniques or by reconsidering already made assumptions taken for granted. Some suggestions are proposed for improving the nal outcome of the present thesis. Automatic placement method for COs - Automatic placement of COs in the area under consideration is a hard combinatorial problem, though very essential for achieving a better nal design result. No global solution, tting to every different geographical scenario, exists. Many parameters must be taken into account for integrating such an algorithm into a xed, widely used method, such as NT density, ground formation, limitations on the maximum distance of placing the CO related to the technology used, population distribution, etc. A grid form, similar to the one created in this project for placing the BSs (see 7.14 on page 83), could be used as a basis for different genetic algorithms to be applied and produce a near-optimal result. Nevertheless, computational time of such an implementation should be taken into consideration. Optimisation of BSs location selection algorithm - In this project, a greedy algorithmic approach has been implemented to nd the BSs locations in the area. Greedy algorithms produce localoptimal results in a short time interval. However, they are not generally preferred as the nal results are usually far from a global optimal solution in a reasonable time interval. More algorithms exist that can be used for dening the positions of the LTE BSs, such as genetic algorithms, simulated annealing or tabu-search. Experimenting with algorithms from this category is expected to lead to a better result than the currently achieved one. Optimisation of density cost/NT calculation algorithm (Algorithm 1) - The algorithm implemented to calculate the cost nt in the whole area based on density, requires improvement. During its run, neighbouring NTs may belong to different types of areas. For example, two consecutive NTs, the rst having a density = 251 (urban) and the other = 249 (suburban), will be grouped into separate area groups, even though they are connected to two SPs that form the same road segment. This results, in worst case, into an individual NT forming a group by itself. If the road segment length, needed to be trenched so as to connect him to the network is high, it will lead to the decision of not connecting this NT to the ber network, even though it is located close to the BS. For instance, in case the length of the road segment is 100 m, this NT will have to pay the whole trenching cost 112
CHAPTER 10. FUTURE WORK
which is equal to 2000 e. Such cost is prohibitive for providing connection to this NT, even during the 3rd deployment phase, as discussed in section 8.3 on page 101. A suggestion to deal with this issue would be to loose the threshold limits based on which the algorithm decides to include or not an NT into a group of NTs as it progresses. If, for example, the difference in the density of two consecutive NTs, discovered during the algorithms discovery process, is within some predened margin but the NTs have to be split in two separate groups, the algorithm should not stop its run but include the latest checked NT in the current formed group. This will lead to the newly discovered segment cost to be shared equally among all the NTs of the group and not uniquely by him. Improving the PCP assignment method - K-means clustering algorithm has been adopted for dening the PCP positions in the whole region. The algorithms main drawback is that the centroids, representing the PCP position, are picked randomly in every region, using a center of mass algorithmic approach. The decision of whether and when an NT should be added into the ber network is affected by the accurate placement of the PCP. For example, the trenching cost to serve one end-user is calculated by adding the trenching from the CO until the corresponding PCP for this end-user plus the trenching from this PCP until the closest road segment outside the end-users premise. Distributing accurately the PCPs in the different regions is essential part of the planning process as it affects the nal capex nt calculation, in many cases. The algorithm can be improved by dynamically assign the centroids based on the NT density while at the same time, aim to minimize the distance between the NTs and the PCP as well as in between the selected NTs. Existing infrastructure - The present project, as it has been already stated, aims at a green-eld hybrid network deployment. In reality, it is not common practice for a telco to move on with a deployment of this scale, as it demands high nancial resources. Instead, a brown-eld implementation of such a network, in a smaller scale and a stepwise manner, is a much more possible scenario. In that case, existing infrastructure in the area would affect in a high grade the planning principle and the objectives set. Considering the existing DSL infrastructure (real DSLAM locations of operators) in Aalborg, matched with proper economic analysis, could return interesting results, from business point of view, for an operator wishing to deploy a hybrid FTTH-LTE broadband network in the area. Redundancy - The proposed implementation of the hybrid architecture does not provide any redundancy between each of the COs and the BSs. Each one of the 20 COs and 31 BSs are stand alone service entities and are potential Single point of failure (SPoF). What will happen if the ber cable connecting one of the BSs to the backhaul network is cut? What will happen in case there is a fault in one of the BSs equipment and a down period starts for the users connected to it until the problem is xed? Can they afford to remain without Internet service provision for a certain period of time? In order to avoid occurrence of such bottlenecks, a single (lower redundancy) or a double (higher redundancy) ring topology can be used to interconnect the BSs and also the COs. In that way, in case of failure (hardware, human mistake, weather conditions, etc.) or malfunctioning in any of the COs or BSs, the trafc that is associated to one of them can be re-directed to another one, based on some initially stated polices. Dening the type of each NT - As it was mentioned in section 7.2.1 on page 77, each one of the total 79 534 NTs in the area is considered as a single end user, which in reality is not true. One NT can represent a single household, a building structure including many separate apartments, a hospital, a factory, a school, etc. , which obviously hosts more than one physical end-user in them. In order to pre-dene the exact user demands that have to be fullled in a certain time period, a further survey in that direction should be done with the cooperation of the local municipality or a private company that is maintaining such data. Accuracy of such qualitative information may change the service priorities set by the operator, altering the nal network design principle. 113
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117
Part IV
Appendix
118
Appendix A
LTE Frequency Bands
In LTE, TDD and FDD are both supported. If the cellular system is using two different carrier frequencies for the uplink (UL) and Downlink (DL), then the duplexing is called FDD. In this case, both the UE and the BS can transmit at the same time. For FDD, a channel separation is needed to reduce the interference between the UL and DL trafc. Another precaution should be taken in the Radio Frequency (RF) chain design that should provide enough out-of-band rejection in the transceiver. This is accomplished using high-quality RF lters. In TDD-based systems, the communication between the UE and the BS is made in a simplex fashion, where one terminal is sending data and the other is receiving.The amount of spectrum required for FDD and TDDis the same. Although FDD uses two bands of frequencies separated by a guard band, TDD uses a single band of frequency, but it needs twice as much bandwidth. Because TDD sends and receives data at different time slots, the antenna will be connected to the transmitter at one time and to the receiver chain at another.
Figure 10.1: LTE FDD Frequency Bands and Channel Numbers [18]
119
Figure 10.2: LTE TDD Frequency Bands and Channel Numbers [18]
120
Appendix B
WINNER II Channel Models
The propagation scenarios modelled in WINNER are:
A1 Indoor ofce
A2 Indoor to outdoor
B1 Urban micro-cell
B2 Bad Urban micro-cell
B3 Indoor hotspot
B4 Outdoor to indoor
B5 Stationary Feeder
C1 Suburban macro-cell
C2 Urban macro-cell
C3 Bad urban macro-cell
C4 Urban macro outdoor to indoor
D1 Rural macro-cell
D2 Moving networks 121
122
Figure 10.3: WINNER II Path Loss Model [34] 123
Appendix C: Examples of used tables
Figure 10.4: Aalborg normalized table
124
Figure 10.5: Node termination table
125
Figure 10.6: Number of NTs connected to specic SP
126
Figure 10.7: ID of each NT, SP, PCP, CO and their coordinates respectively as well as the length and the density of each NT
127
Figure 10.8: SPs IDs and their coordinates respectively as well as the length and to which CO they are connected to
128
Figure 10.9: NT, SP and BS IDs and their coordinates respectively as well as the CO they are connected to and how much it costs to connect each NT to the network
129

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A ALBORG U NIVERSITY

N ETWORKS AND D ISTRIBUTED S YSTEMS

Hybrid PtP/LTE Infrastructure planning focusing on CAPEX-based migration

Authors: Konstantinos PAPAEPTHIMIOU Dimitar M IHAYLOV Yonas T EFERA June 6, 2013

Supervisors: Jose G UTIERREZ Nuno P RATAS

Supervisor: Jose Manuel Gutierrez Nuno Killerich Pratas

Design and Implementation

Conclusion and Future work

7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8 7.9

4.1 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6

Capex elements cost assumptions for LTE network design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6

CHAPTER 2. PROBLEM STATEMENT

Previous related work

CHAPTER 3. PREVIOUS RELATED WORK

Figure 4.1: Fiber optic cable [13]

Figure 4.2: Pig tail [13]

Figure 4.3: Single mode ber structure [14] 20

Long Term Evolution(LTE)

Figure 4.4: Cellular Network Technology Speed Comparison[16] 22

3G EV DO2 1.25 FDD HSDPA 5,10 FDD

3.5G EV-DV 1 .25, 3.75 FDD

GMSK/ 8PSK C (UL)0.04 (DL)0.18

GMSK/ 8PSK CTC (UL)0.05 (DL)0.38

Coding Maximum data rate (Mbps)

CTC (UL)0.14 (DL)0.38

Table 4.1: Characteristics of Different Cellular Networks[18]

Long Term Evolution

Figure 4.7: Comparision of LTEs peak theoretical throughput [22] 26

Spectral Efciency as a Function of LTE Bandwidth[24]

Optical access network architectures

Passive Optical Network

CHAPTER 5. NETWORK PLANNING

The main components in the PON architecture are:

Figure 5.1: PON architecture [25]

Point-to-Point Optical Network

CHAPTER 5. NETWORK PLANNING

Figure 5.2: Point-To-Point architecture [26]

Figure 5.3: Cost breakdown for Point-to-Point[11] 34

CHAPTER 5. NETWORK PLANNING

Active Optical Network

Figure 5.4: Active Architecture [25]

CHAPTER 5. NETWORK PLANNING

Analysis on the three architectures

CHAPTER 5. NETWORK PLANNING

Figure 5.5: Energy consumption in Access network [28]

CHAPTER 5. NETWORK PLANNING

CHAPTER 5. NETWORK PLANNING

CHAPTER 5. NETWORK PLANNING

Figure 5.8: Aalborg commune drew in MapInfo

CHAPTER 5. NETWORK PLANNING

Figure 5.9: Part of an optical ber network[11]

Figure 5.11: Normalized network[11] 41

CHAPTER 5. NETWORK PLANNING

CHAPTER 5. NETWORK PLANNING

Figure 5.12: FTTH price breakdown[30]

CHAPTER 5. NETWORK PLANNING

LTE Cellular Network Planning

CHAPTER 5. NETWORK PLANNING

CHAPTER 5. NETWORK PLANNING

CHAPTER 5. NETWORK PLANNING

CHAPTER 5. NETWORK PLANNING

Western Europe (PB per Month)