Mentum Planet 5.0 LTE Analysis Layers Common LTE Network Analysis Layers Common layers are layers calculated for single-carrier LTE network and provide a view of the overall system performance rather than a specific per-carrier performance. The common layers are the layers most commonly used during the network design phases while the per-carrier layers are truly focused on CINR network optimization and ongoing access network performance management. Analysis Layer Name and Example
What is it and how is it used?
Best Server
Description: This layer provides the downlink coverage area for the sector which provides either the best reference signal strength or the best reference signal CNIR as per the selection made in the network analysis options. Utilization: This very common layer is used to get the geographical area where each sector is the dominant server. This layer is particularly useful for the determination of statistical performance per sector, the calculation of traffic and/or coverage per cell or simply for visualization purpose. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? The calculation of this layer is done by computing the full CNIR for each possible server on both the downlink and uplink, allowing for a finer determination of the best server in case of complex interference scenarios.
Analysis Layer Name and Example
What is it and how is it used?
Best Server Signal Strength
Description: This is the downlink signal strength expressed in dBm of the best serving cell for the subscriber equipment. The best server is determined either from the best signal strength or the best signal CNIR of the reference signal. Utilization: This very common layer is utilized to understand the propagation characteristics of the coverage area. This layer is also commonly used for initial network design based on a target RSSI design target (e.g. -75 dBm as a design target for urban areas). Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? The propagation models available in Mentum Planet are best-of-breed and have been validated and improved over more than 20 years of R&D efforts in radio propagation.
Best Server Reference Signal Strength
Description: This layer provides the signal strength expressed in dBm of the reference signal for the best server on the downlink. Utilization: This layer is quite useful as many types of equipment do provide a reference signal boost which therefore makes the reference signal RSSI different from the traffic channel RSSI. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Detailed modelling of the LTE reference signal symbols in Mentum Planet 5 allows for a fine analysis of the coverage conditions and network performance.
Analysis Layer Name and Example
What is it and how is it used?
Nth Best Server
Description: This layer provides the downlink coverage area for the sector which provides either the Nth best reference signal strength or the Nth best reference signal CNIR as per the selection made in the network analysis options. Utilization: This very common layer is used to get the geographical area where each sector (or cell) is the Nth dominant server. This layer is particularly useful for the determination of dominant sources of inter-cell interference and for optimization purposes. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? The propagation models available in Mentum Planet are best-of-breed and have been validated and improved over more than 20 years of R&D efforts in radio propagation.
Nth Best Server Reference Signal Strength
Description: This layer provides the signal strength expressed in dBm of the reference signal for the Nth best server on the downlink. Utilization: This layer is quite useful as many types of equipment do provide a reference signal boost which therefore makes the reference signal RSSI different from the traffic channel RSSI. This layer is particularly useful for the determination of overlapping between sectors and signal strength difference between the best server sector and the Nth best server sectors. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Detailed modelling of the LTE reference signal symbols in Mentum Planet 5 allows for a fine analysis of the coverage conditions and network performance.
Analysis Layer Name and Example Best Server Carrier
Downlink Best Carrier
What is it and how is it used? Description: This layer provides information on the carrier name on which the Reference Signal C/(N+I) or Reference Signal strength is the greatest. It can slightly differ from the downlink best carrier. Utilization: This layer is rarely used as it merely differs from the Downlink Best Carrier layer. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet fully supports multicarrier LTE as well as mobile, nomadic and fixed LTE deployments.
Description: This layer provides information on the carrier name whose downlink C/(N+I) is the greatest Utilization: This layer can be useful to visualize the carrier allocation pattern and to have a global view of carrier re-utilization within a network and to perform manual carrier allocation when adding a site. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet performs complete downlink and uplink interference analysis, allowing for a proper determination of the potential interference problems.
Analysis Layer Name and Example
What is it and how is it used?
Uplink Best Carrier
Description: This layer provides information on the carrier name whose uplink C/(N+I) is the greatest. Utilization: This layer can be useful to visualize the carrier allocation pattern and to have a global view of carrier re-utilization within a network and to perform manual carrier allocation when adding a site. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet performs complete downlink and uplink interference analysis, allowing for a proper determination of the potential interference problems.
Reference C/(N+I)
Description: This layer provides the C/(N+I) or CINR of the Reference Signal. Utilization: This layer can be used for initial network design where design targets are defined as a function of the Reference Signal CINR.
Analysis Layer Name and Example
What is it and how is it used?
Reference Coverage Probability
Description: This layer provides the coverage probability of the Reference Signal given the environment fading conditions. Utilization: This layer provides a detailed perspective on the ability for the mobile to properly detect the Reference Signal. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet 5.0 provides a detailed modelling of the radio environments and the subscriber’s equipment, making it possible to analyse the network performance in various conditions for various end-users.
Reference Coverage
Description: This layer is used to determine whether or not the Reference coverage probability is above the coverage design target (cell edge coverage probability) defined by the user. Utilization: This layer is used to have a simplified yes/no view of the Reference signal coverage.
Analysis Layer Name and Example
What is it and how is it used?
Downlink C/I
Description: This layer provides the downlink C/I value of the best carrier where C is the useful signal strength of the best server and I is the sum of co-channel and adjacent channel interference generated by all sectors and other system interferences. Utilization: This layer can be used for initial network design where design targets are defined as a function of downlink C/I. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet 5.0 includes interference coordination effects as well as type of LTE schedulers allowing you to simulate more accurately the interference experienced by users. Moreover, external interference such as other system can be taken into account.
Downlink C/(N+I)
Description: This layer provides the downlink C/(N+I) value of the best carrier. Utilization: This layer can be used for initial network design where design targets are defined as a function of the downlink C/(N+I). Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet 5.0 includes interference coordination effects as well as type of LTE schedulers allowing you to simulate more accurately the interference experienced by users. Moreover, external interference such as other system can be taken into account.
Analysis Layer Name and Example
What is it and how is it used?
Downlink Overall Maximum Achievable Data Rate
Description: This layer provides the sum of downlink maximum achievable data rate layers over all available carriers. Utilization: This layer can be used to determine the maximum sustained performance of a cell at each location and aggregate statistically the performance within the best server area to calculate the guaranteed total downlink cell throughput over all carriers. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Detailed modelling of the downlink data rate can be used to determine overall system capacity, one of the key performance indicators of interest for LTE design.
Downlink Overall Average Data Rate
Description: This layer provides the sum of downlink average achievable data rate layers over all available carriers. Utilization: This layer can be used to determine the average performance of a cell at each location and aggregate statistically the performance within the best server area to calculate the average downlink cell throughput over all carriers. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Detailed modelling of the overall network leads to accurate throughput modelling which is ultimately what Mentum Planet 5.0 offers.
Analysis Layer Name and Example
What is it and how is it used?
Downlink Coverage
Description: This layer is a binary (yes/no) layer that provides information on whether or not the downlink coverage is fulfilled with the condition that at least one downlink modulation and one coding scheme is available for the best carrier. Utilization: This layer provides an easy visualization of the ability to cover at a specific reliability target no matter what data rate is achieved. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet 5.0 GIS capabilities with the embedded MapInfo make it possible to turn this into a smooth coverage output which is ready to be provided to any GIS enabled coverage web-portal.
Downlink Best Available Modulation
Description: This layer provides information of the downlink modulation that can be achieved at each location such that the modulation coverage probability is above the target cell edge coverage probability defined by the user. Utilization: This important layer provides information on how spectrally efficient the network is on the downlink. Using statistical analyses, it is possible to get per-sector modulation distribution. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet allows network and user equipment to support all or a subset of the available LTE downlink modulations, making it possible to model the network performance accurately.
Analysis Layer Name and Example
What is it and how is it used?
Downlink Margin
Description: This layer provides the extra headroom (on the downlink) available above what is required to achieve the best possible modulation. Since LTE uses adaptive modulation, this tends to be close to zero where the modulation is not the one with the highest CINR requirement. A negative margin indicates no service. Utilization: This layer is commonly utilized to analyze over/under design in the network.
Downlink Coverage Probability per modulation
Description: These layers (one per modulation) show the downlink coverage probability for a given downlink modulation. Utilization: This layer can be used to produce layer-specific coverage plots
Analysis Layer Name and Example
What is it and how is it used?
Downlink Maximum Achievable Data Rate
Description: This layer provides maximum possible downlink throughput that could be achieved at any given location, with a downlink modulation scheme whose coverage probability is above the cell edge coverage probability defined by the user. This layer is calculated for the best carrier. Utilization: This layer can be used to determine the maximum sustained performance of a cell at each location and aggregate statistically the performance within the best server area to calculate the guaranteed total downlink cell throughput. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Detailed modelling of the overall network leads to accurate throughput modelling which is ultimately what Mentum Planet 5.0 offers.
Downlink Average Data Rate
Description: This layer provides the downlink average data rate that could be achieved at any given location, where the average data rate is the sum of the maximum data rate for all downlink modulations weighted with their coverage probability. Utilization: This layer can be used to determine the average performance of a cell at each location and aggregate statistically the performance within the best server area to calculate the average downlink cell throughput. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Detailed modelling of the overall network leads to accurate throughput modelling which is ultimately what Mentum Planet 5.0 offers.
Analysis Layer Name and Example
What is it and how is it used?
Uplink Overall Maximum Achievable Data Rate
Description: This layer provides the sum of uplink maximum achievable data rate layers over all available carriers. Utilization: This layer can be used to determine the maximum sustained performance of a cell at each location and aggregate statistically the performance within the best server area to calculate the guaranteed total uplink cell throughput over all carriers. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Detailed modelling of the overall network leads to accurate throughput modelling which is ultimately what Mentum Planet 5.0 offers.
Uplink Overall Average Data Rate
Description: This layer provides the sum of uplink average achievable data rate layers over all available carriers. Utilization: This layer can be used to determine the average performance of a cell at each location and aggregate statistically the performance within the best server area to calculate the average uplink cell throughput over all carriers. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Detailed modelling of the uplink data rate can be used to determine overall system capacity, one of the key performance indicators of interest for LTE design.
Analysis Layer Name and Example
What is it and how is it used?
Uplink C/I
Description: This layer provides the uplink C/I value of the best carrier where C is the useful signal strength of the best server and I is the sum of co-channel and adjacent channel interference generated by all user equipments and other system interferences. Utilization: This layer can be used for initial network design where design targets are defined as a function of uplink C/I.
Uplink C/(N+I)
Description: This layer provides the uplink C/(N+I) value of the best carrier. Utilization: This layer can be used for initial network design where design targets are defined as a function of the uplink C/(N+I).
Analysis Layer Name and Example
What is it and how is it used?
Uplink Coverage
Description: This layer is a binary (yes/no) layer that provides information on whether or not the uplink coverage is fulfilled with the condition that at least one uplink modulation and one coding scheme is available for the best carrier. Utilization: This layer provides an easy visualization of the ability to cover at a specific reliability target no matter what data rate is achieved. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet 5.0 GIS capabilities with the embedded MapInfo make it possible to turn this into a smooth coverage output which is ready to be provided to any GIS enabled coverage web-portal.
Uplink Best Available Modulation
Description: This layer provides information of the uplink modulation that can be achieved at each location such that the modulation coverage probability is above the target cell edge coverage probability defined by the user. Utilization: This important layer provides information on how spectrally efficient the network is on the uplink. Using statistical analyses, it is possible to get per-sector modulation distribution. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet allows network and user equipment to support all or a subset of the available LTE uplink modulations, making it possible to model the network performance accurately.
Analysis Layer Name and Example
What is it and how is it used?
Uplink Margin
Description: This layer provides the extra headroom (on the uplink) available above what is required to achieve the best possible modulation. Since LTE uses adaptive modulation, this tends to be close to zero where the modulation is not the one with the highest CINR requirement. A negative margin indicates no service. Utilization: This layer is commonly utilized to analyze over/under design in the network.
Uplink Coverage Probability per modulation
Description: These coverage layers (one per modulation) show the uplink coverage probability for a given uplink modulation. Utilization: This layer can be used to produce layer-specific coverage plots
Analysis Layer Name and Example
What is it and how is it used?
Uplink Maximum Achievable Data Rate
Description: This layer provides maximum possible uplink throughput that could be achieved at any given location, with a uplink modulation scheme whose coverage probability is above the cell edge coverage probability defined by the user. It assumes 100% of the capacity is available. This is the total of all available channels. Utilization: This layer can be used to determine the maximum sustained performance of a cell at each location and aggregate statistically the performance within the best server area to calculate the guaranteed total uplink cell throughput. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Detailed modelling of the overall network leads to accurate throughput modelling which is ultimately what Mentum Planet 5.0 offers.
Uplink Average Data Rate
Description: This layer provides the average uplink data rate that could be achieved at any given location, where the average data rate is the sum of the maximum data rate for all downlink modulations weighted with their coverage probability. Utilization: This layer can be used to determine the average performance of a cell at each location and aggregate statistically the performance within the best server area to calculate the average uplink cell throughput. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Detailed modelling of the overall network leads to accurate throughput modelling which is ultimately what Mentum Planet 5.0 offers.
Analysis Layer Name and Example
What is it and how is it used?
Interference Coordination
Description: This layer provides information on the inner and outer cell areas when interference coordination / FFR option is enabled. Utilization: This layer can be used to determine whether the FFR parameters are well configured to reduce overall interference and to adjust them accordingly to achieve good balance between data rate and cell capacity. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet 5.0 includes interference coordination effects as well as type of LTE schedulers allowing you to simulate more accurately the interference experienced by users.
Composite Coverage
Description: This layer provides in a single view the coverage extent and where there is no coverage, it indicates which of the downlink or the uplink is the limiting factor. Utilization: This very commonly used layer can be used to get the LTE network coverage and to understand how balanced is the link budget throughout a network.
Analysis Layer Name and Example
What is it and how is it used?
Worst Margin
Description: This layer provides the worst margin between the uplink and the downlink. The worst margin is defined as the minimum value between the downlink and uplink margins. Utilization: This layer can be used to evaluate areas of over and under design.
Worst Co-Channel Interfering Sector
Description: This layer provides for each pixel information on which cochannel interfering sector is having the most negative impact on the CINR. Utilization: This layer is very useful to find offenders and to optimize a network design to minimize inter-cell interference. Using statistical analyses with a breakdown per sector, it is possible to get analyse with more details which are the worst interferers per sector.
Analysis Layer Name and Example
What is it and how is it used?
MIMO Type
Description: This layer provides the regions where Diversity or Spatial multiplexing is used in the downlink when using Automatic MIMO Switching (AMS). Utilization: This layer can be used to determine whether the AMS switching point is well configured and to understand the areas where Diversity or Spatial multiplexing are improving your downlink network performance. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet 5.0 allows for a detailed modelling of various Advanced Antenna Systems (spatial diversity, spatial multiplexing, beam forming) which can be implemented with LTE.
Diversity Gain
Description: This layer provides the downlink CINR improvement (expressed in dB) associated with the use of spatial diversity. Utilization: This layer can be used to determine the areas where the downlink diversity gain is the highest and lowest such that you can adjust your design accordingly. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet 5.0 allows for a detailed modelling of various Advanced Antenna Systems which can be implemented with LTE. It provides a detailed modelling of the performance improvement associated with the use of various diversity configurations and in various radio/CINR conditions.
Analysis Layer Name and Example
What is it and how is it used?
Spatial Multiplexing Gain
Description: This layer provides the downlink throughput improvement (expressed in % of improvement) associated with the use of spatial multiplexing. Utilization: This layer can be used to determine the areas where the downlink spatial multiplexing gain is the highest and lowest such that you can adjust your design accordingly. Why is Mentum Planet 5.0 better? Mentum Planet 5.0 allows for a detailed modelling of various Advanced Antenna Systems which can be implemented with LTE. It models the spatial multiplexing gain as a function of the channel condition (CINR), the radio environment and indeed the multiplexing configuration.
