CBNL Services Planning and Analysis

CBNL Services Planning, Auditing and Network Analysis with the Lifecycle Tool

Contents

1 RF Planning ................................................................................................................... 3

1.1 Design Phase ........................................................................................................ 3

1.2 LoS and Site Surveys ............................................................................................ 5

1.3 Modifying the design ............................................................................................. 6

1.4 Tracking changes .................................................................................................. 6

1.5 Documenting the Design ....................................................................................... 7

2 Building the Network ...................................................................................................... 9

2.1 Generating Build Documentation ........................................................................... 9

2.2 Verifying the deployment ..................................................................................... 10

3 Auditing Networks ........................................................................................................ 11

4 Visualising Performance Data ...................................................................................... 12

5 Next steps .................................................................................................................... 15

Introduction

The Lifecycle tool has been developed as an Expert System to massively simplify the technical side of designing and deploying a large PMP network.

Specifically, It performs RF planning, using state of the art optimisation algorithms; it provides a framework for planning, defining and documenting networks; it provides consistent quality of design and documentation; and it requires very little technical knowledge to use.

The tool adds value all the way through the life of a network, from initial straw man design to helping plan optimisation changes on established networks.

CBNL use the Lifecycle tool for all networks where we are responsible for RF design, deployment or value add services. We developed the tool after trying many commercial RF planning tools and deciding that none of them met our requirements.

There was an obvious need for an RF planning tool which was as simple as possible to use, putting all the detailed technical knowledge into code (the Expert System) and minimising the user input required to design high quality, reliable networks.

It was also apparent that RF planning on its own wasnt enough, what was needed was a tool which could take performance data from the VectaStar NMS and compare it to the theoretical design and automatically audit a network of 1000s of links, triaging each link and provide user friendly reports.

We wanted a tool which blurred the line between planning and optimisation and allowed planners to optimise using live performance data and optimisers to plan. We realised that the more visibility and customer has, of who is using his network and how, the faster they can grow and evolve their network.

We use the tool every day on VectaStar networks around the world, monitoring, auditing and optimising the networks for our customers and wed like all our customers to use it as well. We think it is simply the best tool ever created for PMP networks.

1 RF Planning

1.1 Design Phase The starting point for most networks is an Excel file of potential site coordinates from the customer. Typically, at this stage, the customer just wants to see an outline design with a typical Bill of Quantities, to get a feel for the solution scope.

This activity normally takes place within pre-sales.

The Lifecycle tool can import a set of site coordinates from Excel and design a network in a matter of minutes, without any technical input. All links are analysed for Line of Sight using Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) ground height data and, if required, Hub sites can be optimised by the tool automatically.

Once the parenting has been completed the process of generating basic network documentation e.g. Google Earth KML files, site lists, frequency plans, etc. is all automated and the whole process can be as quick as an hour in total.

Standard reports are generated at the push of a button, making documenting the design a very simple process.

Key features of the Lifecycle tool, which facilitate this phase, are: Importing site coordinates from Excel Automatically allocating optimal Hubs Parenting CPEs to sectors accounting for Range and Capacity Automated use of SRTM ground height data:

Simple, one click, frequency re-use pattern design:

Producing KML network designs

Producing Site List reports, Frequency re-use reports and Sector capacity reports

Automated VectaStar BoQ generation

1.2 LoS and Site Surveys Once a design has been completed, the next step is site surveys. No matter how good the RF planning, there will always be sites where the planned line of sight to a Hub doesnt exist or isnt possible due to restrictions on where an antenna can be sighted. It is also important to scope out cable runs, antenna mounting requirements, power supply requirements etc.

To make this phase as smooth as possible, the Lifecycle Tool automatically generates site specific site survey forms, pre-filled with the site ID, location and requirements for the specific radio equipment to be installed. At the push of a button, a set of Excel documents is created, one for each site, which can be emailed to the survey team. They can either fill them in electronically or print them off and complete them.

The survey forms list, in order of preference, all viable Hubs within range of each CPE location, so the survey team can check the favourite and alternates. This means that if the favourite is not possible, e.g. trees in the way, an alternate can be verified during the visit.

Once the survey team have completed the Excel forms, the Lifecycle Tool can batch process all the completed forms and extract the list of visible Hubs and automatically update the design to accommodate any changes i.e. where the first preference Hub did not have Line of Sight.

1.3 Modifying the design Basic design changes, such as moving CPEs to alternate Hubs, due to access or Line of Sight issues are all automated, merely double click on the CPE you wish to move and a list of sensible alternate sectors appears:

This makes changing a design a very simple and fast process.

1.4 Tracking changes The LCT uses a CRC to watermark each design. If any material change is made to a design, a new CRC is generated which is appended to all project file names. All graphical and tabular outputs display the same CRC, which makes tracing a result or KML file back to the source project very simple. This means that it is easy to distinguish between the many versions which get created during the design phase of a network:

Every file output is appended with the CRC, date and user name of the person who created the file. This ensures you can always trace the history of any design:

1.5 Documenting the Design Once a design or deployment phase has been completed, it is important to document the design accordingly. The Lifecycle Tool provides internal documentation, covering all RF aspects as well as capacity. One of the strengths of the Lifecycle tool is strict version control, with all changes saved to separate files and all summary charts referenced back to a unique source file. This makes tracing project history / changes much simpler. Standard summary outputs, often used for customer documentation are: Google Earth KML files which are possibly the best way of visualising a

network and very popular with customers.

Also provided are: Summary List of All sites as an Excel worksheet Summary List of all sectors and their frequency and polarisation Summary List of all sectors and their loading Per site Link budget analysis and path profiles (using SRTM) e.g.

2 Building the Network 2.1 Generating Build Documentation Every site, to be built, needs site specific documentation which lists the equipment to be installed, the orientation of the antennas etc. For each CPE site, it is important to specify the target receive power so that alignment can be verified and the absolute level of performance assured. Note that just peaking up the CPE antenna is not good enough to guarantee the site will meet the target availability as specified by the customer.

The Lifecycle tool automatically generates a complete set of customised Hub and CPE build documentation by populating template files with site specific parameters. The templates can be edited and customised as required e.g. add logos; add customer specific work instructions such as NoC phone numbers etc.

The LCT populates the template files using key word substitution, which makes it very flexible. All the customer has to do is create a workbook and include the key words, such as and the LCT will substitute all the keywords for the site specific values. CBNL can provide a set of template file for all our product configurations e.g. 1+0, 1+1, VS-G, ODU-s, RT with no IDU, RT with 4E IDU etc.

2.2 Verifying the deployment Whilst the CPE site build documentation contains minimum acceptable values for receive power, there is no guarantee that these are actually met at time of installation. Quite often the installation subcontractors are in a hurry to finish sites and leave a long list of miss-aligned, but working, radio links in their wake! What normally happens is that these links continue to work fine, until the rainy season starts and then they all fall over and fail to meet their designed link availability.

A key gating factor for getting the installation accepted is demonstrating that the deployed links meet the design criteria, within a sensible margin, and the Lifecycle tool can automate this process by processing a number of VNMS output files and comparing actual to planned radio performance.

Tables of predicted vs. actual performance1 and associated link availability is available:

In the example above one link has failed the link availability target due to insufficient fade margin, caused by miss-alignment of the antenna which reduces the link budget.

1 Calculated by using mean measured Rx power and then applying standard

link availability models to analyse the fade margin e.g. ITU.R P.530-14

AUID Range Theory

(km)

Range Actual

(km)

Target

Availability

(%)

Actual DS

Availability

(%)

Actual US

Availability

(%)

Status

19068699 1.7 1.9 99.99 99.99 99.99 OK

19068548 2.9 3.0 99.99 100.00 99.99 OK

19070155 0.9 1.2 99.99 99.99 99.99 OK

19068603 1.6 1.7 99.99 99.99 99.99 OK

19068759 1.5 1.6 99.99 99.99 99.99 OK

19068600 1.8 1.9 99.99 99.97 99.99 OK

19068695 2.8 2.9 99.99 99.88 99.93 FAIL

19070085 1.9 2.0 99.99 99.98 99.99 OK

19070201 1.3 1.5 99.99 99.99 99.99 OK

19070145 1.0 1.1 99.99 100.00 100.00 OK

19068585 1.8 1.9 99.99 99.99 99.99 OK

19068410 1.2 1.4 99.99 99.98 99.99 OK

19068401 1.7 1.9 99.99 99.95 99.99 OK

19068641 3.2 3.3 99.99 99.99 99.99 OK

19068619 1.9 2.0 99.99 99.98 99.99 OK

19068689 3.5 3.6 99.90 99.91 99.88 OK

19070513 2.1 2.2 99.99 99.96 99.99 OK

19068670 0.5 0.7 99.99 100.00 100.00 OK

Range Availability at target modulation

3 Auditing Networks

Once built, it is necessary to regularly audit a radio network, to look for links whose performance has degraded before they cause degraded service. The lifecycle tool processes all the performance data from the VNMS and triages all the links. Each parameter is assigned the one of three statuses: Good (green), Marginal (Yellow), Out of spec (Red):

The performance data is automatically analysed for fading events and a hit list of sites produced:

This makes it very simple to prioritise assigning Maintenance teams to resolve issues of non-Los, antenna miss-alignment etc. E.g. in the above example, there is one site whose performance is much worse than all the other links, this is a typical non-Line of Sight scenario where something is obstructing the link and causing fading.

AUID Range (km) Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD

19068699 1.7 -52.1 0.7 -59.3 0.4 10.1 0.6 33.2 0.7

19068548 2.9 -52.8 0.9 -59.2 0.4 8.6 1.5 33.5 0.6

19070155 0.9 -53.8 0.6 -59.3 0.4 11.5 0.5 33.3 0.7

19068603 1.6 -53.5 0.9 -59.5 0.6 11.0 0.9 33.2 0.7

19068759 1.5 -50.5 0.8 -59.3 0.4 6.1 1.1 34.6 0.5

19068600 1.8 -54.8 0.9 -59.3 0.5 10.4 0.9 34.3 0.6

19068695 2.8 -68.3 0.3 -70.8 0.3 12.7 0.4 29.0 0.5

19070085 1.9 -54.0 0.4 -59.5 0.5 10.1 0.4 32.9 0.7

19070201 1.3 -53.6 0.4 -59.4 0.5 11.2 0.5 34.2 0.9

19070145 1.0 -51.0 0.4 -59.4 0.5 8.9 0.5 34.6 0.8

19068585 1.8 -49.7 0.5 -59.5 0.4 7.4 1.4 33.0 0.5

19068410 1.2 -53.7 0.5 -59.5 0.4 11.1 1.1 33.6 0.6

19068401 1.7 -56.0 0.3 -59.6 0.5 11.9 0.8 33.7 0.5

19068641 3.2 -56.1 0.6 -59.5 0.4 11.3 0.7 34.1 0.6

19068619 1.9 -54.3 0.4 -59.4 0.4 10.7 0.4 34.1 0.7

19068689 3.5 -56.8 0.6 -59.5 0.4 13.6 0.6 33.6 0.6

19070513 2.1 -59.3 0.2 -59.3 0.5 17.1 0.4 33.0 0.6

19068670 0.5 -45.3 0.3 -59.4 0.4 4.8 0.5 33.8 0.7

19068833 2.0 -53.2 0.3 -59.5 0.4 10.9 0.9 34.3 0.6

19070131 1.2 -53.8 0.2 -59.3 0.4 11.5 1.0 34.3 0.6

19068396 1.2 -51.8 0.4 -59.4 0.3 13.7 0.5 34.5 0.6

19068590 1.9 -54.6 0.5 -59.3 0.4 13.8 0.5 34.2 0.6

19068576 1.2 -50.6 0.4 -59.4 0.3 9.9 2.0 34.3 0.6

19068816 1.9 -56.1 0.4 -59.3 0.4 13.3 0.5 33.4 0.7

DS Rx Power (dBm) US Rx Power (dBm) Tx Power (dBm) DS CNR (dB)

AUID Total Num Time (s) Mean dB Peak dB

19068666 358 11 87180 -3.5 -17.0

19070173 36 3 2100 -6.2 -9.4

19068612 18 18 10560 -12.8 -32.0

19070151 17 16 18960 -13.7 -29.1

19068412 11 11 11940 -13.4 -32.9

19068611 10 9 1800 -8.2 -15.4

19068544 10 5 1320 -8.0 -11.1

19068746 7 7 1320 -7.3 -9.3

19068548 6 6 2760 -8.4 -14.2

19070155 6 4 720 -7.1 -10.0

19068600 6 6 2340 -9.3 -16.0

19068590 3 3 420 -6.5 -7.2

19068606 3 3 1020 -6.7 -8.1

19068616 3 3 240 -6.4 -6.6

19068628 3 3 780 -6.8 -7.7

19070175 3 3 660 -6.7 -8.6

Fades

4 Visualising Performance Data

The LCT can analyse performance data from the VNMS and generate tabular reports. However, it is often more useful to visualise the data, so the LCT creates KML overlay files for performance data such as Modulation performance:

The single best indicator of network health is the adaptive modulation performance. In order for a link to use a high order modulation it needs to have a high receive power, high carrier to noise and low bit error rate. Any problems with fading or interference will prevent 256 QAM operation. Thus, looking at how long each link spends at 256 QAM is an excellent indicator of network health. The results can be viewed in tabular format:

This shows the percentage time spent at each modulation over the 7 day period, averaged across all VCs active on each RT.

The tool also generates a KML file, overlaying the modulation performance using arrows which are colour coded by modulation (solid Green = 100% 256 QAM and then a sliding scale down to 100% QPSK being solid Red). Each Arrow has two parts, the point (Upstream) and the Rear (Downstream).

Clicking on an arrow will show the actual numbers:

This visual analysis is very good for identifying patterns e.g. two sectors with uplink interference can clearly be seen here by the purple parts of the arrows around the Yaya Hub site.

Combining RF interference analysis, from the Planning Tool, with performance data, show how powerful the LCT is:

Here we see interference paths, from the RF modelling, overlaid with actual performance data, so we can see where we have problems and identify the most likely causes.

Another useful visualisation tool is to overlay mean and peak usage per CPE in Google Earth.

In the above example, semi-circles are used to represent load, with the radius of the semi-circle proportional to the load in Mb/s.

Each RT has four semi-circles associated with it: Inner solid semi-circle representing upstream mean load Inner translucent semi-circle representing upstream peak load Outer solid semi-circle representing downstream mean load Outer translucent semi-circle representing downstream peak load

Each AP has four pie-slices associated with it: Magenta solid representing downstream mean load Magenta translucent representing downstream peak load Yellow solid representing upstream mean load Yellow translucent representing upstream peak load

5 Next steps

The Life Cycle Tool is available to all CBNL customers. CBNL can provide training courses and help with using the tool. Please contact your Account Manager for further information.

Please Note that in order to use features which process performance data, the network must have a VectaStar NMS installed and configured, collecting the performance data.