Comparison of Coverage and Capacity of

LTE-Advanced Networks at 700 MHz and 2.6 GHz

Daniel Y. Mitsutake Cueto, Luiz Alencar Reis da Silva Mello and Carlos V. Rodriguez R.
Centro de Estudos em Telecomunica�oes, CETUC.
Pontificia Universidade Cat6lica do Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
[email protected], smello@cetuc. puc-rio.br, [email protected]

Abstract- This paper presents a comparison of the area II. COVERAGE AND INTERFERENCE CALCULATION
coverage and throughput capacity of LTE-Advanced networks
operating in two different frequency bands, 700 MHz and 2.6 The first steps for the initial planning of a cellular network
GHz. are the selection of an adequate propagation model for the
frequency range and type of region considered.
Keywords-LTE-Advanced; 4G Capacity planning; 4G
A. IEEE 802.16j Propagation Model [2].
Coverage planning.
IEEE 802. 16j Relay Task Group is actively working to
I. INTRODUCTION develop technical standards for fixed wireless access. A path
loss model has been proposed for base station to relay station
The requirements of the 4G standard LTE-Advanced are
(BS-RS) connections in non line-of-sight (NLOS) urban
established in TR 36. 913 and differentiate various categories:
environments. The basic equation for the path loss with
general, capacity (peak transmission speed, latency) and
correction factors is given by:
system benefits (spectral efficiency, throughput at the cell
edge, mobility, coverage) [1]. To satisfy the requirements set
(e. g., peak rate up to 1 Gbps on the downlink and 500 Mbps
PL = A + 10 * Y * IOg10 (�) + !J.P Lf + !J.P Lh + S [dB] (1)
uplink), a series of technical improvements with respect to LTE where:
are introduced. Some key components of the LTE-Advanced
• do= 100m, d>do;
techniques are:
• A is the wavelength in meters;
Addition of the band up to 100 MHz, for example, various
10gt:dO);
•

20 MHz components added in a bandwidth of 100 MHz and • A = 20

thus provide the highest transmission rates according to the
requirements.
• y = a -b * hb + ...:...
hb
[The values of the parameters a, b
and c are shown in Table I];
• Extension of solutions for multi-antenna, with up to 8
• hb is the antenna height of the BS (from 10 to 80 m);
levels in downlink and uplink in 4 levels, increasing the
achievable transmission rates in the link. • S is a random attenuation factor with log-normal
distribution, which takes into account shading by trees
Coordinating multipoint transmission and reception
and structures in general (from 8.2 to 10.6 dB).
•

(CoMP), which allows better performance at the end of the cell

by performing transmission / reception from different cells. f
CoMP is a general term that includes various types of
!J.PLf = 6 * log*
C ) ooo
dB [f is the carrier frequency in MHz]

coordination (packet scheduling, beam-forming, etc.) between

transceivers geographically separated. !J.PLh = -10.8 * log (�) dB [ For land type A e B ]

• Repeaters, as a mechanism to improve coverage and

reduce the cost of deployment. !J.PLh = -20 * log (�) dB [For land type C]

The deployment of LTE-Advanced in Brazil is starting with

the use of the 2. 6 GHz frequency band. A lot of discussion
aroused about the advantages of allocating also the 700 MHz.
In this paper, the step-by-step method for been coverage
and capacity prediction of L TE-Advanced networks is
described. The method is then used to compare the cell radius
and total throughput that can be achieved.

978-1-4799-1397-8/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE

 TABLE!. PARAMETERS FOR REGIONS TYPE AlBIC. traffIc in the peak hour is used instead of average values.
Model Parameter Terrain Type A Terrain Type B Terrain Type C Likewise, the demand for different services should also be
considered.
a 4. 6 4 3. 6
C. Planning coverage.
b 0.0075 0.0065 0.005
The coverage analysis is the most critical step in the design
c 12. 6 17. 1 20 of LTE networks as it is in 3G systems. RLB (Radio Link
Budget) is the heart of coverage planning that allows the test of
• Land type A: Mountainous terrain with moderate to path loss and peak data rates required against the target of
strong density of trees. coverage level. The result is the range of cells required to work
• Land Type B: Intermediate condition path loss. effectively with a limited number of sites. This requires the
• Land Type C: Flat terrain with light tree density. selection of an appropriate propagation model to calculate the
path loss. With knowledge of the estimates of cell size and area
B. Link Budget. to be covered, an estimate of the total number of sites is found.
The link budget is one of the steps performed in the cell This estimate is based on coverage requirements and needs that
planning process. The link budget provides the maximum should be checked for capacity requirements.
propagation loss that allows users located on the edges of the D. Capacity planning.
cells to be able to use the system.
With an estimate of the size of the cells and counting sites,
Calculating the link budget, one can determine the coverage verifying the coverage analysis is performed for the capacity
area and radius of the cell, allowing estimation of the number required. In LTE, the main indicator of capacity is the SINR
of base stations needed to cover the area where you intend to distribution in the cell. The SINR distribution can be directly
offer the service. It is noteworthy that the characteristics of the mapped to the system capacity (data rate). The capacity based
environment (dense urban, urban, suburban, etc.) in which the on the number of sites is compared with the result of the
network is installed, are determinant for the results of Link coverage and the larger of the two numbers is selected as the
Budget, due to propagation loss the signal will suffer. number of end sites.
The basic equation for the calculation of the link budget is: IV. CASE STUDY

LMAX = PT + GT - LT - SNRRequerida - SR + GR - LR + Gdiv (2) In this section, example calculations of cell coverage radius
where: and network capacity are presented for downlink in
LTE-Advanced systems operating in the 700 MHz and the 2. 6
• LMAX is the maximum downlink/uplink loss (dB); GHz frequency bands and the results are compared.
• PT is the transmitter power (dBm); A. Link Budget and Maximum Losses [4].
• GTIR is the transmitting/receiving antenna gain (dBi); • Downlink budget: the equipment parameters for
• LTIR is the transmitterlreceiver loss (dB); downlink budget calculation are shown in Table II.
• SNRRequire d is the required signal noise ratio (dB);
TABLE II. PARAMETERS FOR DOWNLINK.
• SR is the receiver sensitivity (dBm);
Downlink
• G div is the diversity gain (dB).
Transmit Power 43 dBm
Then, considering the fading margin (M) and the body loss
Transmitter Antenna Gain 15 dBi
(BL), the maximum propagation loss is given by:
Transmission Losses 2 dB
Lpmax = LMAX[dB] - BL[dB] - M[dB] (3)
SNR OdB
III. CELL PLANNING
Receiver Antenna Gain o dBi
The LTE cell planning process comprises several steps [3].
Receiver Losses OdB
For the study case described in the following section, only
steps C and D will be addressed. Diversity Gain OdB

A. Network sizing. Fading Margin 4dB

This is the fIrst step in confIguration planning is LTE

sizing. The operator data and requirements are analyzed to Using equations (2) and (3), we can calculate the
determine the best system confIguration. maximum losses in the downlink:

B. Traffic analysis. LMAX = 141 dB; LPmax = 133 dB

The traffIc demand is analyzed to obtain the best possible
• Uplink budget: the equipment parameters for
confIguration of the network with minimum resources.
Overload due to higher layers is taken into account when downlink budget calculation are shown in Table III.
calculating the net bit rate for different types of traffIc. The

2
 TABLE III. PARAMETERS FOR UPLINK. TABLE V.

Uplink
REQUIRED SNR FOR DIFFERENT MODULATIONS, CODE RATES AND ANTENNA
Transmit Power 23 dBm CONFIGURATIONS (20 MHz CHANNEL).

Transmitter Antenna Gain OdBi

Code Antenna
Modulation Bits/Symbol SNR (dB)
Rate Configuration
Transmission Losses o dB

SNR o dB QPSK 118 0,25 SISO - 5,1

Sensitivity Required at Reception -101,5 dBm QPSK 115 0,4 SISO -2,9

Receiver Antenna Gain 15 dBi QPSK 114 0,5 SISO - 1,7

Receiver Losses 2 dB QPSK 1/3 0,67 SISO -1,0

QPSK 112 I SISO 2,0

Using equations (2) and (3), we can calculate the
QPSK 2/3 1,33 SISO 4,3
maximum losses in the uplink:
QPSK 3/4 1,5 SISO 5,5
LMAX = 140,5 dB; LPmax = 132.5 dB
QPSK 4/5 1,6 SISO 6,2

B. Theoretical Cell Radius Calculation. 16QAM 112 2 SISO 7,9

The IEEE 802. 16j propagation model was used in order to 16QAM 2/3 2,67 SISO 11,3
perform the calculation of the radius with h= 2 m, M= 4 dB
16QAM 3/4 3 SISO 12,2
and BL= 4 dB. The calculated values are shown in Table IV.
16QAM 4/5 3,2 SISO 12,8
TABLE IV. LTE-ADVANCED CELL RADIUS FOR SNR=ODB.
64QAM 112 4 SISO 19,3

Frequency (MHz) Cell radius (m) 64QAM 2/3 4,5 SISO 21,5

700 1780 64QAM 3/4 4,8 SISO 22,6

2600 800 64QAM 3/4 9 MlM02x2 50,1

64QAM 4/5 9,6 MIM02x2 86,8

As indicated, these values of cell radius correspond to a
required SNR= 0 dB. The required SNR, and consequently the
D. Cell Radius as a Function of the required SNR.
cell radius, depend on the modulation, code rate and antenna
configuration. Tables VI and VII show the calculated values of cell radius
for different modulation, coding rates, antenna configurations
C. Modulation, Code Rate and SNR.
and channel bandwidths, considering the required SNR.
Table IV shows the SNR Required according to the
modulation, coding rate, channel bandwidth and the
configuration of the antennas. Required values of SNR for 20
MHz channels are shown in Table V. Values for other
bandwidths can be found in [5].

3
 TABLE VI. COVERAGE RADIUS CONSIDERING THE SNR - 2. 6 GHz. E. Comparison ofLTE-A Coverage at 2.6 GHz and 700 MHz.
Using the results from Tables VI and VII, figures 1 and 2
show a comparison between the coverage radius at 2. 6 GHz
20 MHz 40 MHz 60 MHz 80 MHz 100 MHz
Modulation Code Rate Antenna and 700 MHz for bandwidths of 20 MHz and 700 MHz.
R(ru) R(ru) R(ru) R(ru) R(ru)
Channel Bandwidth 20 MHz
QPSK 1/8 SISO 1511 1289 1175 1100 1045 4000

QPSK 1/5 S1S0 1346 1148 1046 980 931 3500

QPSK 1/4 S[SO 1263 1078 982 920 874 3000

QPSK 1/3 S[SO 1218 1039 947 887 842 :§: 2500
QPSK 1/2 S1S0 1040 887 809 757 719 �
:0 2000
�
QPSK 2/3 SISO 921 786 716 671 637 � 1500

QPSK 3/4 SISO 865 738 673 630 598 1000

QPSK 4/5 SISO 834 711 648 607 577 500

I I I � I I I •
16QAM 1/2 SISO 762 650 593 555 527 0 I I I I I I I I I 1111 ..
64 64
QPSK· QPSK. QPSK· QPSK· QPS,.QJ>S,.QJ>S,.QJ>S1(. 16 " 16 " 64 .. 64
<lAM.
16QAM 2/3 SISO 637 544 496 464 441 'I' ." <lAM • <lAM . CAM- OAM· OAM·

'"
OAM- OAM -
"
OAM-
1/8 1/5 1/4 1/3 1/2 '" ,/. ./,
'/2 3 ]/. ./5 1/2 'I'
MIMO MM
I O

16QAM 3/4 SISO 608 519 473 443 421 -2.6GHI 1S11 .346 1263 lU8 .04. 92. '" 834 762 637 608 '89 418 m 3S2 83 12
-700MHI 3357 2990 2807 2705 2310 2047 1922 1852 169' 1416 1351 !l09 ,,, 828 781 .84 27

16QAM 4/5 SISO 589 502 458 429 407

64QAM 1/2 S[SO 418 357 325 305 289 Fig. I. Comparison of LTE-A coverage at 2. 6 GHz and 700 MHz - 20 MHz
bandwidth.
64QAM 2/3 S[SO 373 318 290 271 258
64QAM 3/4 S1S0 352 300 273 256 243
Channel Bandwidth 100 MHz
64QAM 3/4 MIMO 2x2 83 71 64 60 57 2500

64QAM 4/5 MIMO 2x2 12 10 9 9 8

2000

COVERAGE RADIUS CONSIDERING THE SNR - 700 MHz

E
TABLE VII. -; 1500
"
'6
E
= 1000

20 MHz 40 MHz 60 MHz 80 MHz 100 MHz ..

U
Modulation Code Rate Antenna
I • •
R(ru) R(ru) R(ru) R(ru) R(ru) 500

QPSK
QPSK
1/8
1/5
S1S0
SISO
3357
2990
2864
2551
2610
2325
2444
2177
2322
2069
0
OPS«-
I I I I I I I ���
It- 16 •• .. .. .. CAM· CAM·
QPSK- QPSK- QPSK- QPSK- QPS,.QJ>S,.QJ>S OAM• <lAM • OAM CAM CAM·
16 16
..
.. ..
OAM· ·
1/5 1/' 1/3 1/2 2/] ]/. ." 1/2 2/3 3/' 4/5 • 1/2 2/, QAM
" ' 'I' ./,
•
1/8

QPSK 1/4 SISO 2807 2394 2183 2044 1942 -2.6GHz '04' 93' 874 842 719 '" '98 S77 S27 44' 421 407 289 2S8 '"
MIMO MIMO

57 •

QPSK 1/3 2705 2308 2104 1970 1872 .7OQMHz ,,, 64'
SISO
2111 2069 1942 1872 1598 1416 1329 1281 1172 '80 90S S73 54' 127 18

QPSK 112 S1S0 2310 1971 1796 1682 1598 Fig. 2. Comparison of LTE-A coverage at 2. 6 GHz and 700 MHz - 100 MHz
bandwidth.
QPSK 2/3 SISO 2047 1746 1592 1490 1416
QPSK 3/4 SISO 1922 1639 1494 1399 1329
F. Throughput.
QPSK 4/5 SISO 1852 1580 1440 1348 1281
The throughput in the downlink can be obtained by the
16QAM 112 S1S0 1694 1445 1317 1233 1172 following equation [6]:
16QAM 2/3 SISO 1416 1208 1101 1031 980
Nb s NSF
16QAM 3/4 SISO 1351 1152 1050 983 934 T hroughput = - xN x -
Hz s TSF
16QAM 4/5 SISO 1309 1116 1018 953 905
64QAM 112 S1S0 929 793 723 677 643 where Nbs is the number of bits per symbol transported
within a modulation scheme, Ns is the number of subcarriers,
64QAM 2/3 SISO 828 706 644 603 573
NSF is the number of symbols in subframes (assuming 13
64QAM 3/4 SISO 781 666 608 569 541 symbols) and TSF is the subframe period, lms.
64QAM 3/4 MIMO 2x2 184 157 143 134 127
Table VIII shows the values of maximum downlink
64QAM 4/5 MIMO 2x2 27 23 21 19 18
throughput considering FDD like a Frame Structure. The
As can be seen in Tables VI and VII, the cell radius depends calculation was made based on the modulation, code rate,
on the type of modulation and coding rate used. These are spectral efficiency (bits per symbol) and antenna configuration.
determined by the channel conditions propagation.

4
 TABLE VIII. DOWNLINK THROUGHPUT FOR BANDWIDTHS OF 20, 40, 60,
Bandwidth 100 MHz
80 AND 100 MHZ.
800

Bandwidths (MHz) 700

Code
Modulation Antenna
Rate
20 40 60 80 100 600
.
,\
QPSK 1/8 SISO I I 2 2 3
\\
QPSK 1/5 SISO I 3 4 5 7
\� ·2.6 GHz
·700 MHz
QPSK 1/4 SISO 2 4 6 8 II
200 �� .
QPSK 1/3 SISO 4 7 11 15 19
.�.
QPSK 112 SISO 8 17 25 34 42
100
.�.. � �
QPSK 2/3 SISO 15 30 45 60 75 500 1000 1S00 2000 2500

..., Cell radius (m)

QPSK 3/4 SISO 19 38 57 76 95 ,..
.,
c
QPSK 4/5 SISO 22 43 65 86 108 = Fig. 4. Variation in throughput as the distance for 100 MHz.
(JQ
,..
16QAM 112 SISO 17 34 50 67 84 "0
a V. CONCLUSION
16QAM 2/3 SISO 30 60 90 120 149 3:
,.. The basic method for initial planning of 4G cellular
"0
16QAM 3/4 SISO 38 76 113 151 189 � systems has been described. This simple methodology to
16QAM 4/5 SISO 43 86 129 172 215 compare the LTE-Advanced cell radius and total throughput
64QAM 112 SISO 25 50 76 101 126 that can be achieved in two frequency bands, 2. 6 GHz and 700
MHz.
64QAM 2/3 SISO 45 90 135 179 224
The 2. 6 GHz is currently being used in Brazil for the
64QAM 3/4 SISO 57 113 170 227 284
deployment of 4G systems and the 700 MHz is also being
64QAM 3/4 MIM02x2 113 227 340 454 567 considered to allow faster and wider implementation of this
64QAM 4/5 MIM02x2 129 258 387 517 646 technology.
This exercise provides quantitative information on the
advantages of the 700 MHz band. The results have shown that
G. Throughput vs. Cell Radius. the coverage radius at 700 MHz is more than twice the
This section shows the graphs made with the data obtained maximum radius at 2. 6 GHz. This indicates that the number of
from the radio coverage and throughput. This shows that the eNodeB base stations required to cover a given area will
frequency of 700 MHz has a greater distance of coverage and decrease by a factor up to 4 when the lower frequency band is
the throughput improved with greater bandwidth. used.
Considering capacity, the throughput at the cell border will
be very small for distances above 1 Km and operation in the
Bandwidth 20 MHz
160
2. 6 GHz band. On the other hand, at 700 MHz throughputs of
40 MHz and 200 MHz for 20 MHz and 100 MHz channel
140
bandwidths, respectively, at a distance of 1 Km.
120
It should ne noted that these conclusion are limited to
,\ .
\\
macrocell coverage, considering the propagation model used
in the calculations. To evaluate the efficiency of microcells a
\� ·2.6GHz
different treatment is necessary.
��
.700 MHz

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20
.�. �.
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