Radio planning, spectrum management, communications electronic warfare, digital cartography & interactive web TV
Radio planning and network modelling
Planning saves time and money, and often large amounts of both. All operators of the radio spectrum are passionate about efficiency – getting the maximum return for the minimum outlay. Planning a network with the smallest amount of base stations needed to meet service requirements is the way to do that, whether the network is local, regional or national.
Modelling prevents a question from becoming a problem. A question may be whether a proposed new service can be slotted into a spectrum space without causing interference. Modelling can produce an answer before anybody has suffered any consequences.
PLANNING
Planning begins with clearly understanding the user requirement. A user requirement shows what service the user expects in time, space and service. In space, the requirement defines precisely which geographic areas are to be covered; in service, the specification may define the call types to be supported, the service for packet transmission or the data throughput; and, in time defines the way the user expects the network to evolve.
Planning progresses by expressing the user requirement electronically in a planning tool then applying selected infrastructure. The specification normally includes performance parameters such as path availability, confidence in achieving a particular connectivity, limits to intra-network interference for given spectrum blocks and the like. At any stage the plan can be compared with the requirement. Once a satisfactory plan has been developed on-screen, it can be exported to allow infrastructure to be costed, revenue determined and metrics developed to show return on investment. ATDI offers a unique service – the automatic planning of networks using a goal-seek algorithm. This means that large networks can be defined and costed in days.
MODELLING
Modelling is an activity that fits within the family of methodologies often referred to as the scientific method of enquiry. This method requires the statement of a research question. Evidence is then gathered and a conclusion is reached. Alternatively, the evidence may permit a hypothesis to be put forward for further investigation.
So how does modelling help? Consider a question on spectrum coexistence: to what extent can application-specific, licence-exempt devices satisfactorily share with licensed WiMAX networks in the urban environment? This can be answered by outlining the representative networks in a modelling tool, developing scenarios for the operation of the various devices and determining the degree of interference between the devices and networks. From this an answer to the research question can be reasoned.
Consider another question: how many sites are needed for national coverage given two different spectrum block sizes and two different network deployment strategies? This can be answered by auto-planning a series of networks. Curves are drawn for coverage versus site count for a variety of traffic loading. This is repeated for different block sizes, resulting in a series of curves. From this, the number of sites needed for coverage can be determined.
Modelling is a powerful way of revealing evidence to support, or refute, research questions. Tell us your question and we’ll give you the answer.
SERVICES
Beauty contests
Requirement modeling
Equipment and technology parameters specification
Service Integration
Turnkey planning
Validation and enhancement
Training
Hot line support
Propagation model development
Cloud integration
Consulting
Measurements
Site survey
Database integration and migration
PRODUCTS
ICS designer: radio network planning and analysis from 10kHz to 450 GHz. The most complete radioplanning software that exists on the market
ICS LT is designed to simulate the coverage of all types of radio networks, perform population analysis, coverage analysis and point-to-point profiles.
