This document outlines a coverage design project for a shopping mall (CFC) to address capacity and coverage issues. The objectives are to provide 3G coverage throughout the mall, increase indoor capacity, and support the macro sites with micro and pico sites. The methodology uses zone planning concepts and frequency selection to optimize coverage. The design distributes antennas and repeaters throughout the mall and calculates link budgets. Installation costs are estimated and optimization through walk testing is planned to refine the design. The design uses an active DAS solution with a master unit distributing signals to multiple RRUs to cover the site with one microwave backhaul link.

1. Ahmed Hesham Abd El-
Halim
2016
CFC PLANNING PROJECT
VODAFONE |

2. 1
Table of Contents
Background and Description of Problem......................................................................................................3
Main Research Objective (project Scope).................................................................................................3
Technical need for this project .............................................................................................................3
Business needs for this project.............................................................................................................3
The Project Methodology and Limitation (challenges).................................................................................3
The 3G challenge.......................................................................................................................................3
Basic indoor Methodologies common for 2G and 3G (4G if needed) ......................................................4
Isolation.................................................................................................................................................4
High rise problem..................................................................................................................................4
The Zone Planning Concept ..................................................................................................................4
To reach optimum solution.......................................................................................................................4
Coverage design............................................................................................................................................5
GSM/UMTS design....................................................................................................................................5
Frequency selection..............................................................................................................................5
Reuse area.............................................................................................................................................6
Area distribution...................................................................................................................................6
DAS Distribution..................................................................................................................................13
Cost and components calculations .........................................................................................................14
Antennas.............................................................................................................................................14
Repeaters............................................................................................................................................15
Splitters...............................................................................................................................................15
RRUs....................................................................................................................................................15
Master Unit.........................................................................................................................................15
Shelter, ACs and cables.......................................................................................................................15
Total expected cost.............................................................................................................................15
Link Budget Calculations.........................................................................................................................15
Coaxial losses ......................................................................................................................................15
Splitter losses......................................................................................................................................15
Antenna and amplifiers gains .............................................................................................................15
Air losses .............................................................................................................................................16
Wall and body losses...........................................................................................................................16
Total calculations ................................................................................................................................16

3. 2
Optimization stage......................................................................................................................................16
Walk Test.................................................................................................................................................16
Final planning stage ................................................................................................................................16
Questions....................................................................................................................................................17
How many sites you need to cover your solution?.................................................................................17
What are the types of sites of sites you will use at your design?...........................................................17
If we have a traffic of 20E under GOS=2%, is it better to use one cell or to split the traffic between two
cells each carry 10E?...............................................................................................................................17
Note ....................................................................................................................................................17

4. 3
Background and Description of Problem
With the rise of CFC capacity and the huge market needs found so this project aims to cover the
customer needs in this area to guarantee our customer satisfaction which is one of the main objectives
of our business.
Main Research Objective (project Scope)
Technical need for this project
We found a problem with the rise of the customer numbers in CFC so we found 3 problems
1. Lack of coverage in the Mall (specially 3G coverage)
2. We need more and more capacity indoor
3. The macro sites must be supported with Micro and Pico sites in the Mall
4. The design must be optimum and flexible for future needs (data rates, new services and more
capacity) and it must keep up with extensions
Business needs for this project
1. 70-80% of calls originate in the indoor area
2. This investment must make a positive business case and a good and fast ROI (will be
calculated later)
3. cost reduction of up to 65% can be achieved by covering the 3G (and 4G if needed also)
users from inside the building with indoor coverage systems
The Project Methodology and Limitation (challenges)
The 3G challenge
1. Pilot pollution is expected due to small area and the macro sites effect
2. Power load per user will increase in the indoor (power is a very important resource in 3G)
3. Many soft hand overs are expected

5. 4
Basic indoor Methodologies common for 2G and 3G (4G if needed)
Isolation
Indoor customer must be isolated from macro sites even if they are close to the building edges
High rise problem
High buildings with windows may be affected by interference (but I found CFC not high and there is no
windows and well isolated from outdoor, so I will neglect this effect)
The Zone Planning Concept
Every building has its characteristics and CFC will be considered as coverage and interference limited
area so I need a medium signal level power for sufficient isolation from macro sites and preventing Ping
Pong handovers in 2G and soft in 3G
1. –70 dBm = -40 db for 2G Rx Level
2. –80 dBm = -50 db CPICH level for 3G.
To reach optimum solution
1. Use visible antenna placement
2. Use high quality antennas (the originals only )
3. Accounting coaxial, splitters and air losses
4. Site installation costs

6. 5
Coverage design
GSM/UMTS design
Frequency selection
1. Selecting 3 frequencies from 1800 band to increase penetration
So I have 24 time slot
2. Selecting 1 frequency 2100 and use three codes
I can use spreading code SF 16 for HSPA+

7. 6
Reuse area
 For 24 time slots and 2% Gos, I wiil have 16.63 E
 As the given data is 150 users every 100 m so I calculated the area as 100*100= 10,000 m2
with
30mE for every user
 Then I will have 4.5 E for every 10,000 m2
(According to the given data)
4.5------10,000m2
16.63------Area to be reused
 Area= (16.63*10,000)/4.5=36,900 m2
 I will reuse every 36,900 m2
(or every one cell)
Area distribution
Every 4-star shape refers to an antenna producing 1 frequency 2G and another 1 3G, and every, 5-star
shape refers to a repeaters.
 Food court (1 cell 2G and 1 cell 3G)

8. 7
 Carrefour and the corridor in front of it (1 sector)

9. 8
 Center point area (1 cell)

10. 9
 Garage (repeaters from center point area)

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 The fountain area and buildings around it (1 cell)
 The main corridor of the mall in the 3 floors (2 sectors in every floor)
Floor 1

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Floor 2

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Floor 3
 Parking 1 and 2 and streets near to them

14. 13
 Parking 3 and streets near to it
DAS Distribution
An example for the distribution system that will be implemented.
 Using the same design until RRU

15. 14
 Using the part of this design after the RRU to distribute the power to the antennas with less
costs
Cost and components calculations
Antennas
 1 indoor-directional antenna
 3 street level-directional antennas

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 9 omnidirectional antennas
 1 microwave antenna in the site to transmit all the traffic to the BSC
Repeaters
7 repeaters and may be increased after optimization
Splitters
 No. of 1:3 splitter = 3
 No. of 1:2 splitter = 1
RRUs
One RRU for every area
 Fountain area
 Food court area
 Floor 3 area (Carrefour and the main corridor)
 Floor 1 and 2 together
Master Unit
One master unit will be placed in the telecom room
Shelter, ACs and cables
 1 shelter to protect the master unit
 3 Km of coaxial cables
Total expected cost
300,000 EGP
Link Budget Calculations
I used active DAS solution so the link budget calculations won’t be critical as in passive solutions because
I can control power easily.
Coaxial losses
½ inch cables will be used
 -19 db losses for 1800 band for 100 m cable
 -20 db losses for 2100 band for 100 m cable
Splitter losses
Splitter loss = 10 log (no. of ports) + insertion loss, insertion loss = 0.1 db (may be neglected practically)
 1:2 Splitter loss = -3.11 db
 1:3 splitter loss = -4.87 db
Antenna and amplifiers gains
Are variable according to the used devices so we can estimate numbers then modify after the walk test
and I can control power easily to reach the optimum solution.

17. 16
Air losses
Losses= 32.44 + 20log(F MHz) + 20log(D Km)
I will assume a 50 m distance in some areas like the food court and 100 m in other areas like the main
corridor
 2G losses= 32.44 + 20log(1800) +20log(0.1) = -77.5 db
 2G losses= 32.44 + 20log(1800) +20log(0.05) = -71.5 db
 3G losses= 32.44 + 20log(2100) +20log(0.1) = -78.8 db
 3G losses= 32.44 + 20log(2100) +20log(0.05) = -72.86 db
Wall and body losses
All walls = -3 db
Body losses during voice= -2 db
Body losses during data= 0 db
Total calculations
Finding the path which needs the largest amount of power and buy the unites that can give this power
 2G @ food court = -40 db = Gain – 3 – 71.5 – 4.87 – 19 = gain – 98.37, then Gain needed = 58.37
db (I assumed 100 m cable but these numbers may be modified after calculating the exact
distance)
 3G @ food court = -50 db = Gain – 3 – 71.5 – 4.87 – 20 = gain – 99.37, then CPICH Gain needed =
49.37 db for CPICH and it is around 10% of the transmitted power from NodeB
So gain needed = 59.37 db (I assumed 100 m cable but these numbers may be modified
after calculating the exact distance
Optimization stage
Walk Test
After finishing all the design and installing it we must go to field and perform a walk test to check
 Signal reach in the mall
 Signal quality
 GOS
 Measuring any KPI
Final planning stage
It is expected to find some problems after performing the walk test so we try to improve the system in
this stage to be closer to the theoretical plan.
A maximum deviation +ve or –ve 10 % is accepted finally.
 Improving any KPI under the expected performance

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Questions
How many sites you need to cover your solution?
I will use active DAS solution so I use one master unit and distribute using multiple RRUs in different
areas and finally all traffic will be transmitted by one microwave link.
What are the types of sites of sites you will use at your design?
 All indoor RRUs and antennas are indoor sites.
 The parking area and the fountain are street level sites.
If we have a traffic of 20E under GOS=2%, is it better to use one cell or to split the traffic
between two cells each carry 10E?
According to the previous calculations I used 3 frequencies for voice and one frequency for data and
voice if needed.
 For 2G calculations only I have 16.63E so I cannot use one cell to cover 20E with full rate but I
can use half rate technique to cover all the 20E in one cell.
 If I split the cell I can cover 32E and it will be waste of resources
Note
I did not use the half rate technique in my calculations because the traffic in the Mall will increase
gradually and I want the design to last longest time in the future to accept new users, more capacity,
new services and more data rates

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