GSM Network Design for Stavanger and Sandnes

GSM network design for Stavanger and Sandnes

Jan Magne Tjensvold

November 6, 2007

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Background 2 2.1 Geography and population ...... 2 2.2 Technology and equipment ...... 4

3 Calculations 4 3.1 Omni directional antenna ...... 4 3.2 Sectored antenna ...... 6 3.3 Voice channels ...... 6 3.4 Traﬃc density ...... 6 3.5 Cells ...... 7 3.6 Equipment ...... 8

4 Cost estimate 8

References 9

1 Introduction

This report investigates the design of a GSM network for the cities of Sta- vanger and Sandnes in Norway. It provides a cost estimate of the required infrastructure in these two cities and for the highway connecting them. The estimate only includes equipment costs and not maintenance costs or other operational costs which would be needed to keep the network fully func- tional during its lifetime. It only includes the cost for the base transceiver stations (BTS), base station controllers (BSC) and the mobile switching center (MSC).

1 Figure 1: Map of Norway with the Figure 2: Rogaland county with location of Stavanger and Sandnes. the municipality of Stavanger in red and Sandnes in blue.

2 Background

2.1 Geography and population Stavanger and Sandnes is located in the county of Rogaland, Norway as seen by Figure 1 and 2. Statistics Norway (SSB) [1] provides maps showing the population density of an area. One such map of Stavanger and Sandnes has been used as the basis for drawing an outline of the urban areas in Figure 3 on the next page. SSB provided some vital statistics for the two municipalities which is shown in Table 1 on the following page. The table also contains some other statistics in addition to SSB’s population and area statistics. Since we are designing a GSM network for the city areas we only use the urban area and urban population statistics. We also make the assumption that the population growth within each municipality is uniformly distributed over the area it covers. Using the distance calculation tool from Temakart Rogaland [2] the length of highway E39, as shown in Figure 3, was found to be about 10.7 km. We also assume that we will be able to get a market share of 35% .

2 Figure 3: Outline of the urban areas of Stavanger and Sandnes along with highway E39.

Statistics Stavanger Sandnes Highway Area 71.4 km2 304.5 km2 10.7 km Urban area 43.4 km2 21.0 km2 Population 117 315 60 507 Urban population 115 087 47 700 Annual growth rate 1.22% 1.36% Market penetration 40% 45% Path loss slope, γ 3.6 3.6 2.7 Bandwidth, BW 8.33 MHz 8.33 MHz 4.166 MHz Traﬃc/subscriber, E 0.040 Erlangs 0.035 Erlangs

Table 1: Area and population statistics for Stavanger and Sandnes.

3 2.2 Technology and equipment LGC Wireless, Inc. [3] has been chosen as the supplier for the GSM network equipment. In Table 2 you can see the speciﬁcations of their UltraWAVE range of BTSs, BSCs, MSCs and HLRs (Home Location Register is sold together with MSC). The equipment costs are estimated since none of the vendors was willing to provide their prices to this project.

Component Capacity Connections Cost (NOK) BTS 69.08 Erlangs 84 channels 400 000 BSC 466 Erlangs 31 BTSs 1 800 000 MSC 2 500 Erlangs 256 BSCs 4 500 000 HLR 100 000 subscribers

Table 2: GSM network equipment speciﬁcations from LGC Wireless.

GSM requires a signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) of at least 14 dB. GSM channel bandwidth is 200 kHz and by employing Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) each channel can carry 8 full-rate voice channels. We will use a frequency reuse factor of N = 4. Roll out time (ROT ) is estimated to 4 years, in which no additional equipment is expected to be installed. This means that the capacity will remain constant during this time. We also aim for a grade of service (GoS) of 1%. This means that in average 1 call is blocked for every 100 call attempts.

3 Calculations

3.1 Omni directional antenna First we must ﬁnd out if we should use omni directional or sectored antennas. For omni directional antennas the following formula for SIR applies √ γ  3N − 1 SIR = 10 log (1)  j  where N is the frequency reuse factor, γ is the path loss slope and j is the number of surrounding cells. For a hexagonal cell layout, as seen in Figure 4 on the following page, j is 6. √ To simplify (1) we replace 3N with q using the following equation

d √ q = = 3N (2) r where d is the distance between the center of two cells using the same frequency and r is the radius of a cell. When inserting (2) into (1) we get the

4 1 2

6 3

5 4

Figure 4: Hexagonal cell layout. following formula (q − 1)γ SIR = 10 log (3) j By applying our frequency reuse factor N = 4 to (2) we can calculate the value of q √ √ q = 3N = 3 × 4 = 3.464 We can now ﬁnd the SIR in the two cities by using the speciﬁed path loss value of γ = 3.5 like this

(q − 1)γ SIR = 10 log city j " # (3.464 − 1)3.6 = 10 log 6 = 6.318 dB

SIRcity is less than the 14 dB we require so we cannot use omni directional antennas in the cities. We use a similar formula to calculate the SIR for the highway. Since the highway does not use a hexagonal cell layout, but rather a linear cell layout, we use the following formula

γ γ SIRhighway = 10 log [(2N + 1) + (2N − 1) ] = 10 log (2 × 4 + 1)2.7 + (2 × 4 − 1)2.7 = 27.55 dB

We ﬁnd that SIRhighway is well above the required 14 dB. This means that we can safely use omni directional antennas for the highway.

5 3.2 Sectored antenna Since we are unable to use omni directional antennas with N = 4 in the cities we must examine the possibility of using sectored antennas instead. In GSM a sectored antenna usually covers 120° and in a group of 3 sectored antennas they cover a total of 360°. To ﬁnd the SIR for GMS type of sectored antennas we use 1 SIR = 10 log (4) q−γ + (q + 0.7)−γ Using the previously discovered value of q and γ together with (4) we ﬁnd that the SIR for the cities is 1 SIR = 10 log city q−γ + (q + 0.7)−γ 1 = 10 log 3.464−3.6 + (3.464 + 0.7)−3.6 = 17.62 dB which is above the requirement of 14 dB. This allows us to use sectored antennas in the city areas.

3.3 Voice channels To ﬁnd the number of voice channels m we use the following formula BW SpeechP erRF m = − 1 × (5) Channels N × Sectors The −1 channel is the control channel which we have to make room for. We ﬁll (5) with our numbers for the two cities and the highway and get 8.33 MHz 8 m = − 1 × = 26 channels city 200 kHz 4 × 3 4.166 MHz 8 m = − 1 × = 38 channels highway 200 kHz 4 × 1

3.4 Traffic density By assuming uniform distribution of the subscribers we can use this formula to determine the traffic density TD of each city E × P op × P ene × (1 + Growth)ROT × Share TD = (6) Area where E is the traffic per subscriber (call intensity) in Erlangs, P op is the population, P ene is the market penetration, Growth is the annual population growth, ROT is the roll out time in years and Share is the market

6 share. Using the values we have found together with (6) we ﬁnd the traﬃc density of each city the following way

0.040 × 115 087 × 0.40 × (1 + 0.0122)4 × 0.35 TDStavanger = 43.4 km2 = 15.588 Erlangs/km2 0.035 × 47 700 × 0.45 × (1 + 0.0136)4 × 0.35 TDSandnes = 21.0 km2 = 13.216 Erlangs/km2

Next we need to determine how much traﬃc we can serve in each sector with the number of voice channels and our target GoS. The Erlang-B function gives us a starting point

Em GoS = B(E, m) = m! (7) Pm Ek k=1 k! where m is the number of voice channels and E is the call intensity in Erlangs. Using (7) we determine experimentally that, to achieve a GoS of 1% for the given number of voice channels, we will be able to serve the following traﬃc per sector (TS)

TScity = 16.959 Erlangs

TShighway = 27.253 Erlangs

3.5 Cells To find out how many cells our network needs, and thus how many BTSs we need to deploy, we first have to find out how much area a single cell covers. If we assume that the subscribers are distributed uniformly the following formula will give us the answers we need TS × Sectors CellArea = (8) TD Applying (8) to the TD and TS values we have found gives

16.959 Erlangs × 3 2 CellAreaStavanger = = 3.264 km 15.588 Erlangs/km2

16.959 Erlangs × 3 2 CellAreaSandnes = = 3.850 km 13.216 Erlangs/km2 To ﬁnd the minimum number of cells we need to cover the given areas we divide the total area on the cell area like this Area Cells = (9) CellArea

7 We use this formula to ﬁne the number of cells required for Stavanger and Sandnes 43.4 km2 CellsStavanger = = 14 cells 3.264 km2 21.0 km2 CellsSandnes = = 6 cells 3.850 km2 For the highway the cell radius can be much larger since it will not be completely surrounded by other cells. Seeing as the longest distance the GSM speciﬁcation supports in practical use is 35 km and our highway is 10.7 km we can just use one single cell for the entire stretch of road.

Cellshighway = 1 cell

3.6 Equipment The minimum number of BTSs needed is T otalCells = 14 + 6 + 1 = 21 cells/BTSs Each BTS can only handle 69.08 Erlangs and the total cell traﬃc is

CellT raffic = 3 × TScity = 3 × 16.959 = 50.877 Erlangs so we do not need to increase the number of BTSs. The UltraWAVE BSC can connect 31 BTSs, which should be enough, but it has a traffic limitation of only 466 Erlangs. The total traffic intensity is T otalT raffic = T otalCells × CellT raffic = 21 × 50.877 = 1068 Erlangs which is more than a single BSC can handle. We find the number of BSCs we need by T otalT raffic 1068 = = 3 BSCs T rafficLimit 466 One UltraWAVE X100 MSC can handle 256 BSCs and 2 500 Erlangs which should be more than enough for our purpose. Using the population numbers, annual growth, market penetration and market share we find that our total number of subscribers will be about 25 000 at the end of year 4. This is well within the limits of the UltraWAVE X100 HLR.

4 Cost estimate

Given the cost of each piece of equipment from Table 2 on page 4 we calculate the total cost T otalCost = 21×400 000+3×1 800 000+1×4 500 000 = 18 300 000 NOK

8 18.3 million NOK is the cost of the all the essential GMS network equipment for the cities of Stavanger and Sandnes pluss the highway. This number relies on some variables like expected market share and market penetration which might be hard to predict. The estimate is also very sensitive to the path loss slope values and the estimated traﬃc per subscriber.

References

[1] Statistics Norway (SSB). URL http://www.ssb.no/.

[2] Temakart Rogaland. Detailed web map of Rogaland with distance and area tools., URL http://www.temakart-rogaland.no.

[3] LGC Wireless, Inc. URL http://www.lgcwireless.com/.