Cellopt DataExchange 2.4 in Forsk Atoll - Getting Started

DataExchange 2.4 Getting Started Guide

Forsk Atoll

Actix Cellopt DataExchange Getting Started Guide 2.4 - Forsk Atoll

Copyright © Actix 2012. All rights reserved. All trademarks are hereby acknowledged. Actix, the Actix logo, Cellopt and the Cellopt logo are the trademarks of Actix. Similar restrictions to use of our company and product names may apply elsewhere. The content of this manual is provided for information only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Actix. Actix assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that appear in this documentation. Microsoft, Excel and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

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Actix Cellopt DataExchange Getting Started Guide 2.4 - Forsk Atoll

CONTENTS 1

WELCOME TO CELLOPT DATAEXCHANGE ................................................................. 4 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 5 New in version 2.4.................................................................................... 5 New in version 2.3.1 ................................................................................. 5 New in version 2.3.................................................................................... 5 New in version 2.2.................................................................................... 5 New in version 2.1.................................................................................... 6 Introduced in version 2.0 .......................................................................... 8

2

GETTING STARTED WITH CELLOPT DATAEXCHANGE .................................................. 10 INSTALLING CELLOPT DATAEXCHANGE ................................................................. 11 CONFIGURING FORSK ATOLL ............................................................................. 11

3

STARTING CELLOPT DATAEXCHANGE ................................................................... 17 STARTING FROM WITHIN FORSK ATOLL ................................................................. 18

4

EXPORTING DATA FROM ATOLL USING CELLOPT DATAEXCHANGE ................................... 20 EXPORTING DATA .......................................................................................... 21 Export data options page......................................................................... 24 Select a Demand Grid page ..................................................................... 25 Calculation resolution .......................................................................... 25 Select demand grid............................................................................. 26 Interference List and Signal Strength Array Options page ............................ 27 Coverage level parameters .................................................................. 27 Interference list options ...................................................................... 28 Create Cellopt Neighbour list................................................................ 29 Start Export page ................................................................................... 30 Synchronizing page ................................................................................ 31

5

IMPORTING CELLOPT DATAEXCHANGE DATA

INTO

ATOLL ............................................ 33

IMPORTING DATA .......................................................................................... 34 6

TROUBLESHOOTING ....................................................................................... 36 Troubleshooting: known issues ................................................................ 36 Plan import consideration .................................................................... 36 MAL length options ............................................................................. 36

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Actix Cellopt DataExchange Getting Started Guide 2.4 - Forsk Atoll

1

WELCOME

TO

CELLOPT DATAEXCHANGE

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Actix Cellopt DataExchange Getting Started Guide 2.4 - Forsk Atoll

INTRODUCTION Cellopt DataExchange is a powerful tool that allows you to interface Cellopt AFP with major cell planning tools, in order to export the required input data for the frequency planning process and importing plans generated by Cellopt AFP back to the cellplanning tool.

NEW

IN VERSION

2.4

Cellopt Data Exchange version 2.4 includes these features: 

NEW

Support for Forsk Atoll v.3.1.0 (Single- and MultiRAT projects). Note that backward compatibility with older Atoll versions cannot be guaranteed.

IN VERSION

2.3.1

Cellopt Data Exchange version 2.3.1 includes these features: 

Support for Forsk Atoll v.2.8.2



Cellopt License is no longer required

NEW

IN VERSION

2.3

Cellopt DataExchange version 2.3 includes these features: 

Unicode Support Support for Unicode Characters in site and sector names.

NEW

IN VERSION

2.2

Cellopt DataExchange version 2.2 includes these features:



Direct Use of Predictions Earlier versions of DataExchange used an indirect method to calculate signal values. Path loss and inclination were calculated separately by Atoll and

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combined at a later stage. This allowed support for products that are now defunct. In DataExchange 2.2, signal values are extracted directly from the predictions. This simplification works sufficiently well for use with Cellopt AFP. This solves the following issues: - User-defined prediction models were not being used. - Predictions in the user project were invalid at the end of DataExchange runs.



Citrix Access Restrictions Earlier versions of DataExchange set Atoll parameters by writing into the atoll.ini file. This is no longer necessary, allowing DataExchange to run on a Citrix server where there is no ‘write’ access to this file. This solves the following issues: - DataExchange wrote to atoll.ini. - Error when Atoll closes down.

NEW

IN VERSION

2.1

Cellopt DataExchange version 2.1 included these features:



Atoll 2.4.1 support Cellopt DataExchange 2.1 now supports interaction with version 2.4.1 of Forsk Atoll as well as version 2.2.2 (introduced in DE version 2.0).



BSIC restrictions BSIC restrictions per sector made in Atoll are now exported to Cellopt AFP. The restrictions are set as forbidden BSIC in the AFP project.

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Actix Cellopt DataExchange Getting Started Guide 2.4 - Forsk Atoll



Frequency restrictions Frequency restrictions per sector made in Atoll are now exported to Cellopt AFP. The restrictions are set as forbidden frequencies in the AFP project.



Separate installer Cellopt DataExchange used to be installed with Cellopt ACP, but is now installed separately. Please uninstall Cellopt ACP to remove older versions of Cellopt DataExchange before installing Cellopt DataExchange 2.1.

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INTRODUCED

IN VER SION

2.0

Cellopt DataExchange version 2.0 included these features:



Forsk Atoll integration Cellopt DataExchange 2.0 integrates to the Forsk Atoll planning tool. It is possible to generate a Cellopt AFP project based on the data in Atoll as well as import plan assignments (frequencies, HSN & MAIO and BSIC) back to Atoll. The computation zone is used to select the network parts to be exported to Cellopt AFP.



Cellopt AFP project export Cellopt DataExchange generates a GSM Cellopt AFP project file that is imported into Cellopt AFP. Network properties (sites, sectors and radios), spectrum assignments and frequency hopping settings and the Atollgenerated neighbour list are exported.



Interference list generation An interference list based on the planning tool predictions can be generated and included in Cellopt AFP project export. Interference list options, e.g. the C/I and C/A thresholds that define interference may be specified in the client.



Neighbour list generation A neighbour list based on the planning tool predictions may be generated and included in Cellopt AFP project export. Neighbour list options may be.



Cellopt AFP plan import The assignments (frequencies, BSIC and HSN & MAIO) optimized in Cellopt AFP can be imported back into Atoll.



Atoll focus and computation zones The sites/sectors/radios part of the focus zone are exported as the selected radios (and marked with layer Selected in the Import category) in Cellopt AFP which may be changed by the optimizer. In addition, a special category,

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Zone, is used to mark radios belonging to the focus and computation zone, to allow loading additional selections (which will then change the layers of the “Import” category).



Atoll frozen modelling The frozen attributes in Atoll (sectors, frequencies, BSIC and HSN) are included in the Cellopt AFP project in a category called Frozen. The layers of this category indicate the property that is frozen. This is important, as Cellopt AFP cannot prevent a reassignment of a frozen element. The frozen assignment can be maintained by simply unselecting the site/sector/radio.



Atoll channel type modelling The channel type information is maintained in a category called Channel Type, included in the exported Cellopt AFP project. Possible layers of this category are: BCCH, TCH and TCH_Inner depending on what are used in Atoll.



Atoll HCS modelling The HCS layer information in Atoll (if available) is exported to a category called HCS.

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2

GETTING STARTED

WITH

CELLOPT DATAEXCHANGE

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INSTALL ING CELLOPT DATAEXCH ANGE 1. If you have not already done so, download the Cellopt DataExchange .zip file. 2. Extract the contents of the .zip file to a temporary directory. 3. From this directory, run the setup.exe program. The setup program may first run installers for the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 and/or the Visual C++ Runtime libraries, before installing Cellopt DataExchange itself. 4. Follow the instructions given by these installers.

CONFIGURING FORSK A TOLL 1. Launch Atoll. 2. Open the project that you want to work with. 3. Define the focus and computation zones. The focus zone contains the sectors that you want Cellopt AFP to optimize. For Cellopt DataExchange 2.3, your computation zone should completely encompass the region defined by the signals originating from the sectors within the focus zone. This is useful because all statistics in Atoll are based on the focus zone, while Cellopt bases its statistics on a regular bounding box containing the computation zone. 4. Make sure that all the predictions are valid and current. To do this, right-click on the "Transmitters" branch and open the "Properties" dialog. The table lists the status of the prediction files in the project. To make sure that there are no invalid propagation entries listed, press the Statistics button. If the number of transmitters to be recomputed is not zero, then the prediction

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needs to be recalculated. Note that inactive sectors will have missing predictions - this is not a problem.

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5. Make sure that there is at least one unlocked prediction (for example, a strongest server prediction) in the "Predictions" folder. If there are no unlocked entries in the "Predictions" branch, Atoll will not generate any data when it is instructed to do so by Cellopt.

Unlocked prediction

6. Check that Atoll correctly generates the prediction when you click the "Calculate" toolbar icon or press . 7. Cellopt can only import raster traffic based on environments. If you want to use raster traffic data with Cellopt, you need to export the traffic using the BIL format. This is done by going to the traffic data and right-clicking on the environment maps you are interested in. If you export the traffic data to a BIL file, you will need to re-save the configuration file as explained in the next section.

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8. Export the configuration to a file. This file will be used by Cellopt to read the configuration data. The configuration file must use the same name as the Atoll project, and be in the same directory as that project. For example, for project file "C:\Atoll Projects\Demo.atl", export the configuration to the file "C:\Atoll Projects\Demo.cfg". This allows Cellopt to pick up information about the traffic grids that is not available through the API supplied by Forsk. To save the file, from Atoll, select Tools > User configuration > Export and then select the information you want to export:

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After saving the traffic and configuration data to a file, the Atoll project folder could look as follows:

Configuration

Traffic

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9. Save the Atoll project. 10. Make sure that your coordinate system is correctly set.

This value must not be “Undefined”.

Actix Cellopt DataExchange Getting Started Guide 2.4 - Forsk Atoll

3

STARTING CEL LOPT DATAEXCHANGE

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Actix Cellopt DataExchange Getting Started Guide 2.4 - Forsk Atoll

STARTING

FROM WITH IN

FORSK A TOLL

1. To start Cellopt DataExchange from within Forsk Atoll, either: Click on the Start Cellopt DataExchange toolbar button:

Or, from the Tools menu, select the option Cellopt: Start Cellopt DataExchange.

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2. You are now prompted as to whether you want to Export data from Atoll to Cellopt AFP, or Import data from Cellopt AFP into Atoll.

Each option is described in a following chapter:



Exporting data on page 21.



Importing data on page 34.

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4

EXPORTING DATA DATAEXCHANGE

FROM

ATOLL

U SING

CELLOPT

Actix Cellopt DataExchange Getting Started Guide 2.4 - Forsk Atoll

EXPORTING

DATA

At this point, you should already have started DataExchange and have configured the Atoll project as described in the previous chapters. 1. To export data from Atoll into Cellopt AFP, click the Export button:

The Welcome page now opens:

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Actix Cellopt DataExchange Getting Started Guide 2.4 - Forsk Atoll

2. Click Next to proceed. 3. You may now choose whether you want to accept the default settings or use settings that were saved from a previous DataExchange session (see the Start Export page section on page 29).

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This page is displayed while Cellopt DataExchange loads data from your project:

This may take several minutes for large projects. When the data has been loaded, you will automatically be moved to the next page in the dialog sequence. The progress bar in the control pane indicates the current state of this process. When the loading process is complete, the Export Data Options page opens. NB: Please note repeaters and remote antennas would not be exported. This would not affect frequency planning process as these network elements would be assigned frequency same as that of its respective parent network elements.

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EXPORT

DATA OPT IONS P AGE

The information at the top of the Export Data Options page shows the name of the project to be exported, and the planning tool containing the project. Note: Hold the mouse over each field for tips giving further information about its purpose.

1. Select the type of data that you want to export: Cellopt AFP 3 project – Only Cellopt AFP 3 Projects can be exported. 2. Select a location to export the data to. This is the location on your disk where the exported data will be written. This is an intermediate location used to store the data before it is imported into Cellopt AFP.

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3. When you are satisfied with these settings, click Next to continue to the Select a Demand Grid page.

SELECT

A

DEMAND GR ID

PAGE

This page allows you to load optional data for Cellopt DataExchange. When you click Next, Cellopt DataExchange will start to load this project in the background while you continue through the dialog sequence.

Cal cul ati on re s ol uti on



Select a Working resolution. The native resolution is shown as a comparison. By default, Cellopt DataExchange will not alter the calculation resolution. DataExchange allows the calculation resolution to be changed to the values shown by the drop-down menu.

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Reducing the calculation resolution can improve the performance of the export process (the greater the reduction, the greater the improvement) at the expense of accuracy. To reduce the resolution, select the required resolution using the drop-down menu. S el ect deman d gri d 1. Select a Demand grid. Select a demand grid to load from a drop-down list box that displays a list of all available demand grids created in Atoll. 2. If the available demand grids are not required, you can check the Create demand grid box. 3. Specify the Blocking probability and Random traffic per sector for an Erlang-B demand grid. 4. Click Create to create the specified demand grid. 5. Once you are finished with this page, click Next to proceed to the Interference List and Signal Strength Array Options page.

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INTERFERENCE LIST

AND

S IGNAL STRENGTH ARRAY OPTIONS

PAGE

This page allows you to specify information that controls how Cellopt DataExchange evaluates coverage.

Coverage level parameters



Specify a signal strength Cover threshold value in dBm. Cellopt DataExchange includes a geographic bin in the calculations if the signal is greater than the sensitivity value.

Actix Cellopt DataExchange Getting Started Guide 2.4 - Forsk Atoll

I nte r fe re nc e lis t opt i ons 1. Include adjacent channel statistics between sectors. Check this to calculate adjacent channel statistics (only shown for iDEN networks).

2. Specify a C/I target value in dB. 3. Specify an Adjacent channel offset (in dB) – this is a difference between adjacent channel frequencies. 4. Specify a Standard deviation (in dB). This is used to provide a smoothing function to the probability of interference, which is useful in modelling variations in signal strength around the mean predicted for any area inside a geographic bin, as well as to account for any inaccuracies in the prediction model. Cellopt DataExchange uses the standard deviation to create a range of interference probabilities around the target C/I. As a guideline, the standard deviation of your prediction model is a reasonable value to use for this purpose. For example, given a target C/I of 12 dB and a standard deviation of 8 dB, DataExchange would assign a small probability of interference at a C/I of 20 dB, which increases to 100% at a C/I of 4 dB.

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By contrast, a standard deviation of 0 dB would result in a 100% probability of interference at 12 dB or lower, and a 0% probability of interference at a C/I of 13 dB or higher. 5. Specify a Noise value (in dBm) – this is the amount of thermal and external interference present within the network. 6. Specify a Global bias value (in dB) - this is the amount that a second signal must be in order to be classified as a second server. Cr e at e Cel l op t Nei gh b ou r l is t 1. Create Cellopt neighbour list – check this box to export a Celloptgenerated neighbour list. Note that this list will be in addition to the Atollgenerated neighbour list, if available.

2. Handover hysteresis start – this is the minimum signal margin (in dB) that a sector can have, and be considered as a neighbour sector rather than an interferer. 3. Handover hysteresis end – this is the maximum signal margin (in dB) that a sector can have, and be considered as a neighbour sector. For example, if you set the handover hysteresis start to 3 dB and the hysteresis end to 12 dB, then all signals in the 3 to -12 dB range are considered as neighbours. In this example, signals between 0 and 3 dB are assumed to be interferers. Signals greater than -12 dB are not neighbours. 4. Once you are satisfied with the settings on this page, click Next to proceed to the Start Export page.

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START EXPORT

PAGE

To allow you to reuse these settings, you can save them under a specified name:

Click Start to begin the export. The next page to be displayed is the Synchronizing page.

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SYNCHRONIZING

PAGE

Before the export of data can take place, Cellopt DataExchange must analyze your network. This process can take a long time if you are working with a large project.

The progress bar in the control pane at the bottom of the screen indicates the current state of this process.

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Once the process is complete, the Project Overview screen for Cellopt AFP will be displayed:

You can now proceed to use Cellopt AFP as described in the relevant user documentation. Occasionally you will see this dialog:

Always click Yes; this will return you to the Atoll screen.

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5

IMPORTING CEL LOPT DATAEXCHANGE

DATA INTO

ATOLL

Actix Cellopt DataExchange Getting Started Guide 2.4 - Forsk Atoll

IMPORTING

DATA

1. Start Cellopt DataExchange. 2. Select the Import option.

3. Select an appropriate afp3 or XML data file using the Files of Type drop down dialog box:

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4. Select the frequency plan that you want to use and the desired Import Option:

5. Select OK. You have now updated your Atoll frequency plan data.

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6

TROUBLE SHOOT ING

TROUBLE SHOOT ING :

KNOWN ISSUE S

Pl an im p ort c on si d er at i on The state of the network should remain unchanged from the moment the network is exported to Cellopt AFP to the time the frequency plan, etc. are imported back into Atoll. For example, sites/sectors/radios should not be added or removed in Cellopt AFP. MA L l en gth op ti on s Individual MAL length options are not exported to Cellopt AFP. A global setting is specified in Cellopt AFP.

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