Radio planning

Radio planning is the process of assigning frequencies, transmitter locations and parameters of a wireless communications system to provide sufficient coverage and capacity for the services required. Radio plan of a cellular communication system has two objectives: coverage and capacity. Coverage relates to the geographical footprint within the system that has sufficient signal strength to provide for a call/data session. Capacity relates to the capability of the system to sustain a given number of subscribers.

The Radio Planning process consists of four major stages

• Initial radio link budgeting : The first level of the radio planning process is a budgetary level to approximate the coverage area of the planned sites and to eventually determine how many sites are required for the particular radio frequency communication system.
• Detailed radio frequency propagation modeling : Second level of the radio planning process relies on a more detailed propagation model. Automatic planning tools are often employed in this phase to perform a more accurate determination of the number of sites required, antenna directions and down tilts, neighbor cell lists for each sites, mobility parameter for each sites, frequency plan, and detailed coverage predictions.
• Fine tuning and optimization : This stage includes items such as collecting drive data to be used to tune or calibrate the propagation prediction model, predicting the available data throughout each site, fine tuning of parameter settings. This process is required in the deployment of the system or in determining service contract based coverage.
• Continuous optimization : The final phase of the RF planning process involves continuous optimization of the RF plan to accommodate for changes in the environment or additional service requirements (e.g. additional coverage or capacity). This phase starts from initial network deployment and involves collecting measurement data on a regular basis that could be via drive testing or centralized collection. The data is then used to plan new sites or to optimize the parameter settings (e.g. antenna orientation, down tilting, frequency plan) of existing sites.