WCDMA Radio Network Plan Some Problem Research For China Mobile

WCDMA is one of the third generation mobile communication key standards . Comparing with GSM technology, WCDMA system brings a essential improvement of spectrum ultilization and bearer services and can provide rich multimedia services for subscribers. Nevertheless, when 3G is introduced, radio network planning will experience a significant change; how to perform 3G radio network planning will be one of the most important tasks for the operators. As the biggest 2G GSM operator in the world, China Mobile, owning a huge 2G GSM network, need to consider both the service requirements for 3G and the existing resources in its 2G network; thus, it could succeed in meeting customers' requirements and operation requirements as well as taking the advantages of 2G resources and reducing operation expenses.Based on the qualitative forecast of 3G market and service and China Mobile's specific scenario, the following suggestions were concluded after we analyzed the basic rules of WCDMA radio network planning and further considered key challenges during radio network planning period:1．When China Mobile begin to build the WCDMA network, the network will be defined as a mixed network, which should support both speech calls and data services. The WCDMA network should offer continuous coverage for key areas and data hop spots. The basic service provided by WCDMA network could be defined as CS64K video call.2．The key points in WCDMA radio network planning lies in the definition of traffic model and the site planning of BTS locations. During BTS site planning, we should consider the existing 2G sites as much as possible. Due to the coverage reason, the 3G network will need about 50% to 70% of 2G BTS sites to ensure a seamless coverage. The number of WCDMA base stations is subject to the balance between coverage planning and capacity planning. It's possible to use Campell model to calculate the number of WCDMA base stations and the number of baseband cards.3．Whether a network planning of WCDMA system is economic can be evaluated upon two separate factors, cost efficiency of the project and company's performance. While 3G traffic is open still, we can consider three different proposals: the aggressive, the tender and the conservative, use the methods of incremental analysis with comparisons of "have-or-not" to do analysis of cost efficiency, evaluate the financial performance and select the best solution.