SBTS Dimensioning Guideline

DN09257073
Issue 15A
Approved on 2021-09-30

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SBTS Dimensioning Guideline

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SBTS Dimensioning Guideline

Table of Contents

Summary of changes .................................................................................................................. 10

1 Overview of the SBTS dimensioning ........................................................................................ 13

1.1 Baseband dimensioning ................................................................................................. 13
1.2 Common transport ......................................................................................................... 16
1.3 Capacity licenses ............................................................................................................. 17

2 SBTS site composition ............................................................................................................... 18

2.1 FSMF site composition ................................................................................................... 18
2.2 AirScale site composition ............................................................................................... 24
2.3 AirScale + FSMF site composition ................................................................................. 28

3 Baseband dimensioning ............................................................................................................. 30

3.1 LTE baseband dimensioning in SBTS ............................................................................ 30
3.1.1 LTE cell capacity without the feature impact .................................................. 30
3.1.2 Limits of a baseband pool .................................................................................. 36
3.1.3 UL CoMP cell capacity .......................................................................................... 41
3.1.3.1 Inter-eNB flexible UL CoMP capacity on AirScale ................................. 41
3.1.3.2 Intra-eNB fixed UL CoMP capacity on AirScale ..................................... 42
3.1.3.3 Intra-eNB fixed UL CoMP capacity on FSMF ......................................... 46
3.1.4 NB IoT cell capacity .............................................................................................. 49
3.1.4.1 NB-IoT cell capacity for AirScale ............................................................. 49
3.1.4.2 NB-IoT Cell Capacity for FSMF ................................................................ 53
3.1.5 Carrier Aggregation dimensioning for site configuration .............................. 55
3.1.6 C-plane pool dimensioning ................................................................................. 57
3.1.7 Donut cell .............................................................................................................. 64
3.1.8 eNB traffic models ............................................................................................... 65
3.1.8.1 AirScale traffic model ............................................................................... 65
3.1.8.2 Flexi Multiradio 10 eNB traffic model .................................................... 67
3.2 WCDMA baseband dimensioning in SBTS .................................................................... 68
3.2.1 Fundamentals of Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS baseband dimensioning .............. 68
3.2.2 Fundamentals of Nokia AirScale BTS baseband dimensioning ..................... 75
3.2.2.1 Balancing RACH load between LCGs configured on the same SBTS
............................................................................................................................ 80
3.2.3 Common Control Channels dimensioning ........................................................ 81
3.2.4 Dedicated channel (DCH) dimensioning ........................................................... 88
3.2.5 HSDPA dimensioning ........................................................................................... 90
3.2.6 HSUPA dimensioning ......................................................................................... 101
3.2.7 Multi RAB ............................................................................................................. 112
3.3 GSM baseband dimensioning in SBTS ........................................................................ 113

4 Common transport dimensioning in SBTS ........................................................................... 117

4.1 SBTS common transport dimensioning process ...................................................... 117

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4.2 Dimensioning based on traffic profile (recommended) .......................................... 117

4.3 Dimensioning based on air interface capabilities .................................................... 117
4.4 Transport overhead and dimensioning example ..................................................... 120
4.5 Estimation of C-Plane, M-Plane and S-Plane bit rates ............................................ 122
4.6 Mutliplexing gain ........................................................................................................... 123

5 SRAN capacity licenses ............................................................................................................ 125

6 Dimensioning glossary ............................................................................................................. 126

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SBTS Dimensioning Guideline

List of Figures
Figure 1 Approaches to SBTS common transport dimensioning ......................................... 17
Figure 2 SBTS site composition ................................................................................................. 18
Figure 3 Flexi 10 BTS System Module ....................................................................................... 19
Figure 4 GSM-LTE shared system module configuration ...................................................... 19
Figure 5 GSM-WCDMA shared system module configuration with WCDMA deployed on both
FBBA/C ............................................................................................................................. 20
Figure 6 WCDMA-LTE shared system module configuration with WCDMA and LTE deployed
on both FBBA/C .............................................................................................................. 21
Figure 7 GSM-WCDMA-LTE shared system module configuration ....................................... 21
Figure 8 Dual-FSMF configuration ............................................................................................. 22
Figure 9 WCDMA – GSM card sharing case (a) .......................................................................... 26
Figure 10 WCDMA – GSM card sharing case (b) ........................................................................ 26
Figure 11 WCDMA – LTE card sharing case ............................................................................... 27
Figure 12 Example of FDD-LTE and WCDMA BB cards sharing (12 subunits) ..................... 27
Figure 13 Connections between the primary and secondary cores .................................... 29
Figure 14 Half subrack configuration ........................................................................................ 57
Figure 15 Full subrack configuration ......................................................................................... 58
Figure 16 Half subrack configuration ........................................................................................ 59
Figure 17 Full subrack configuration ......................................................................................... 59
Figure 18 C-plane events calculation methods at cell level .................................................. 61
Figure 19 C-plane events calculation method at eNB level ................................................... 62
Figure 20 Impact of events related to LTE-M on C-plane capacity ...................................... 63
Figure 21 Impact of events related to NB-IoT on C-plane capacity .................................... 63
Figure 22 Impact of events related to EN-DC on C-plane capacity ..................................... 63
Figure 23 FSMF capacity for WCDMA ........................................................................................ 69
Figure 24 Number of available subunits ................................................................................... 71
Figure 25 Example presenting an FSMF, one normal HSPA LCG, 12 HSPA cells and one
interference cancelation unit ....................................................................................... 72
Figure 26 System Module Rel.99 CE capacity .......................................................................... 74
Figure 27 Six subunits Digital Signal Processor (DSP) group ................................................. 86
Figure 28 Example of carrier aggregation DB/DC-HSDPA UEs connected via primary serving
cell (PSC) and secondary serving cell (SSC) ................................................................. 94
Figure 29 System module example of Tcell configurations (1LCG) (1/2) ............................ 98
Figure 30 System module example of Tcell configurations (1LCG) (2/2) ............................ 98
Figure 31 Approaches based on air interface capabilities .................................................. 118
Figure 32 Dimensioning based on air interface capacity with carrier aggregation
......................................................................................................................................... 119
Figure 33 Inter-site carrier aggregation ................................................................................ 120
Figure 34 Example of SBTS common transport dimensioning based on air interface
capabilities without LTE carrier aggregation ........................................................... 121

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SBTS Dimensioning Guideline

Figure 35 Calculation of the multiplexing gain ...................................................................... 123

Figure 36 LTE and HSDPA cell load multiplexing gain .......................................................... 124

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SBTS Dimensioning Guideline

List of Tables
Table 1 BB cell sets on FSMF ...................................................................................................... 14
Table 2 BB cell sets on ABIA ....................................................................................................... 14
Table 3 BB cell sets on ABIO/ABIN ............................................................................................. 14
Table 4 GSM-LTE capacity (single FSMF) .................................................................................. 20
Table 5 GSM-WCDMA capacity (single FSMF) ........................................................................... 20
Table 6 WCDMA-LTE capacity (single FSMF) ............................................................................. 21
Table 7 GSM-WCDMA-LTE capacity (single FSMF) ................................................................... 22
Table 8 WCDMA-LTE capacity (dual FSMF) ............................................................................... 23
Table 9 GSM-WCDMA-LTE capacity (dual FSMF) ...................................................................... 23
Table 10 A summary of the half subrack supported configurations ................................... 25
Table 11 A summary of the full subrack supported configurations ..................................... 25
Table 12 AirScale capacity .......................................................................................................... 28
Table 13 FSMF cell capacity for FDD ......................................................................................... 30
Table 14 FSMF and FSIH cell capacity for TDD ........................................................................ 32
Table 15 ABIA cell capacity for FDD .......................................................................................... 33
Table 16 ABIO (either LTE or NB-IoT) cell capacity for FDD .................................................. 33
Table 17 ABIN (either LTE or NB-IoT) cell capacity for FDD ................................................... 34
Table 18 ABIA cell capacity for TDD .......................................................................................... 34
Table 19 ABIC CPRI mMIMO cell capacity for TDD .................................................................. 35
Table 20 ABIC eCPRI mMIMO cell capacity for TDD ................................................................ 35
Table 21 ABIO cell capacity for TDD .......................................................................................... 35
Table 22 ABIN cell capacity for TDD .......................................................................................... 36
Table 23 Built-in limits of a BB pool for FDD ........................................................................... 37
Table 24 Built-in limits of a BB pool for TDD ........................................................................... 37
Table 25 Peak RRC context per cell for FDD ............................................................................ 37
Table 26 Number of users per cell for FSMF for TDD ............................................................ 38
Table 27 Number of users per cell for AirScale for TDD ........................................................ 39
Table 28 Number of users per cell for AirScale CPRI mMIMO for TDD ................................ 40
Table 29 Layer number per cell for AirScale CPRI mMIMO for TDD ..................................... 40
Table 30 Number of users per cell for AirScale eCPRI mMIMO for TDD .............................. 41
Table 31 Layer number per cell for AirScale eCPRI mMIMO for TDD ................................... 41
Table 32 CRAN AirScale flexible UL CoMP cell capacity .......................................................... 42
Table 33 LTE1691 and LTE1402 configurations on AirScale in one BB pool (with BB pool
activated) ......................................................................................................................... 43
Table 34 LTE1691 and LTE1402 FDD configurations on half ABIA ...................................... 44
Table 35 LTE2128 TDD supported configurations in one BB pool ..................................... 44
Table 36 LTE2104 TDD supported configurations in one BB pool (with BB pool activated)
........................................................................................................................................... 44
Table 37 LTE2104 TDD supported configurations in one BB pool (with BB pool deactivated)
........................................................................................................................................... 45

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Table 38 CB006754 TDD supported configurations in one BB pool (with BB pool activated)
........................................................................................................................................... 45
Table 39 CB006754 TDD supported configurations in one BB pool (with BB pool
deactivated) .................................................................................................................... 45
Table 40 LTE2128 TDD supported configurations ................................................................. 46
Table 41 LTE2104 TDD supported configurations ................................................................. 47
Table 42 LTE1691 and LTE1402 FDD supported configurations ......................................... 47
Table 43 LTE1402 TDD supported configurations ................................................................. 48
Table 44 LTE1691 TDD supported configurations ................................................................. 48
Table 45 Cell capacity per pool (half ABIA)– guard band and inband with anchor carrier
(LTE5205 and LTE5393) ................................................................................................ 49
Table 46 Cell capacity per pool (half ABIA) – guard band and inband with anchor carrier and
legacy UL CoMP (LTE5268 and LTE5393) ................................................................... 50
Table 47 Cell capacity per pool (half ABIA)– guard band and inband with anchor carrier and
non-anchor carrier (LTE4036) ...................................................................................... 50
Table 48 Cell capacity per pool (half ABIA)– guard band and inband with anchor carrier,
non-anchor carrier, and fixed UL CoMP (LTE4036) ................................................... 51
Table 49 Cell capacity per pool (half ABIA)– guard band and inband with anchor carrier,
non-anchor carrier, and legacy UL CoMP (LTE4898) ................................................ 51
Table 50 Cell capacity per pool (half ABIA) – inband in 3 MHz cell (LTE4196) ..................... 51
Table 51 Cell capacity per ABIA – guard band and inband with anchor carrier and non-
anchor carrier and flexible UL CoMP (LTE5329) ........................................................ 52
Table 52 Cell capacity per pool (half ABIA) – standalone (LTE3667) .................................... 52
Table 53 Cell capacity per pool (half ABIA): mixed NB-IoT configurations ......................... 53
Table 54 Cell capacity per HW board – guard band (LTE4499, LTE3570) ............................ 53
Table 55 Cell capacity per HW board – inband (LTE3071) and inband in 3 MHz cell (LTE4196)
........................................................................................................................................... 54
Table 56 Cell capacity per HW board – guard band and inband, with anchor carrier and
legacy UL CoMP (LTE5268) ........................................................................................... 54
Table 57 Cell capacity per HW board – standalone (LTE3543)​ ............................................ 55
Table 58 Cell capacity per HW board - standalone and legacy UL ComP (LTE4819)
........................................................................................................................................... 55
Table 59 SRIO-based (FSMF) LTE FDD and TDD inter-eNB CA configuration dimensioning
........................................................................................................................................... 55
Table 60 X2-based (AirScale) LTE FDD and TDD inter-eNB CA configuration dimensioning
........................................................................................................................................... 56
Table 61 Traffic model for ASIB/ASIL + ABIN/ABIO configuration ........................................ 65
Table 62 Traffic model for ASIB/ASIL + 3 ABIN/ABIO configuration .................................... 66
Table 63 Traffic model for ASIB/ASIL + 6 ABIO/ABIN configuration .................................... 66
Table 64 Traffic model for 1x ASIA configuration ................................................................... 67
Table 65 Flexi Multiradio 10 eNB Traffic model ...................................................................... 68
Table 66 Number of subunits available for WCDMA in FSMF and FBBA/C extension

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baseband cards .............................................................................................................. 70

Table 67 Number of subunits available in Flexi 10 BTS system module ............................. 70
Table 68 Number of subunits available per SBTS with one FSMF with single LCG
........................................................................................................................................... 73
Table 69 Number of HSDPA subunits required for the second and every next LCG
........................................................................................................................................... 74
Table 70 WCDMA capacity correspondence with AirScale Indoor System Module HW
configuration .................................................................................................................. 76
Table 71 HSDPA scheduler allocation scenarios ..................................................................... 78
Table 72 Examples of WCDMA capacity allocation subunits (1x LCG scenario) .................. 79
Table 73 Number of CCCH pools and RHE capacity in the FSMF HSDPA scheduler subunits
........................................................................................................................................... 83
Table 74 LCG dimensioning ........................................................................................................ 84
Table 75 Normal HSPA LCG configurations .............................................................................. 87
Table 76 Small HSPA LCG configurations ................................................................................. 88
Table 77 Baseband resources required per one Rel.99 traffic channel .............................. 89
Table 78 Required HSDPA subunits for HSDPA schedulers versus LCG configurations (Flexi
Multiradio 10 BTS) .......................................................................................................... 92
Table 79 Required HSDPA subunits for HSDPA schedulers per LCG versus LCG HSPA
configuration (Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS) ....................................................................... 92
Table 80 Required HSDPA subunits for HSDPA schedulers per LCG versus LCG HSPA
configuration and number of cells (Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS) ................................... 93
Table 81 CA DB/DC HSDPA users capacity (Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS) ................................... 94
Table 82 CA DC user capacity (Nokia AirScale BTS) ................................................................ 95
Table 83 Associated DCH and Rel.99 CE usage ....................................................................... 96
Table 84 Tcell values handled by HSDPA schedulers (Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS) .................. 97
Table 85 Tcell grouping (Nokia AirScale BTS) ........................................................................... 97
Table 86 Tcell values handled by HSDPA schedulers when RAN3067: Flexible HSDPA
Carriers Allocation is enabled ..................................................................................... 100
Table 87 Maximum number of supported SBTS configurations with NBIC and PIC
......................................................................................................................................... 105
Table 88 Number of subunits reserved from the LCG capacity after NBIC activation (FSMF)
......................................................................................................................................... 105
Table 89 Number of subunits reserved from the LCG capacity after NBIC activation
(AirScale Indoor System Module) ............................................................................... 106
Table 90 Maximum number of additional CCCH pools, assuming that one PIC pool is
commissioned and allocated ...................................................................................... 108
Table 91 FSMF subunit HSUPA UE allocation ......................................................................... 112
Table 92 GSM capacity within FSMF ........................................................................................ 114
Table 93 GSM capacity within ABIA ......................................................................................... 115

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SBTS Dimensioning Guideline

Summary of changes
A list of changes between document issues. You can navigate through the respective
changed topics.

Changes between issues 15 (2021-07-30, SRAN 21B) and 15A (2021-08-24,

SRAN 21B)

LTE cell capacity without the feature impact

Note about BB pool limit in case of 1.4/3MHz cell and donut cell was added to the ABIO
cell capacity for TDD table.
Note about cell capacity in case of FSMF / FBBA / FBBC configuration was added to the
FSMF cell capacity for FDD table.

Intra-eNB fixed UL CoMP capacity on FSMF

Note about cell capacity in case of one BB card (FSMF or FBBA or FBBC) configuration was
added to the LTE1691 and LTE1402 FDD supported configurations table.

NB-IoT cell capacity for AirScale

A note about the LTE5418: NB-IoT 100 km Cell Range (Guardband/Inband) feature impact
on number of NB-IoT cells was added to the Cell capacity per pool (half ABIA)– guard band
and inband with anchor carrier (LTE5205 and LTE5393) table.
A note about the LTE4547: NB-IoT 100 km Cell Range feature impact on number of NB-
IoT cells was added to the Cell capacity per pool (half ABIA) (LTE3667) table.

Donut cell

New section about number of donut cells supported per BB pool was added.

Changes between issues 14B (2021-06-04, SRAN 21A) and 15 (2021-07-30,

SRAN 21B)

Overview of the SBTS dimensioning

The title of the document was changed from SBTS Dimensioning to SBTS Dimensioning

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Guideline.

AirScale site composition

Configurations supported for SRAN 21B were added.

LTE cell capacity without the feature impact

The ABIC eCPRI mMIMO cell capacity for TDD table was updated.
A paragraph about each ABIA capacity plug-in unit supporting up to 4 cells each with 4
layer transmission in DL with 5/10/15/20 MHz each was added after the ABIA cell
capacity for FDD table.
The exemplary limitation on maximum cell amount in the note for tables ABIO cell
capacity for FDD, ABIN cell capacity for FDD, ABIO cell capacity for TDD, and ABIN cell
capacity for TDD was removed.
The ABIO cell capacity for TDD and ABIN cell capacity for TDD tables were updated. A new
row with info related to mMIMO was added.
The ABIO cell capacity for FDD and ABIN cell capacity for FDD tables were updated.

Limits of a baseband pool

The section title was changed from Maximum supported RRC context to Limits of a
baseband pool.
The Built-in limits of a BB pool for TDD table was added.
The Built-in limits of a BB pool for FDD table was updated.

Intra-eNB fixed UL CoMP capacity on AirScale

The CB006754 TDD supported configurations in one BB pool (with BB pool activated) and
CB006754 TDD supported configurations in one BB pool (with BB pool deactivated) tables
were added.
The headers of the LTE2104 TDD supported configurations in one BB pool (with BB pool
activated) and LTE2104 TDD supported configurations in one BB pool (with BB pool
deactivated) tables were updated changing 8RX with 4RX.
The content of the LTE2104 TDD supported configurations in one BB pool (with BB pool
deactivated) table was updated changing 8RX with 4RX in the 4RX UL CoMP sets column.

NB-IoT Cell Capacity for FSMF

A paragraph about each ABIA capacity plug-in unit supporting up to 4 LTE cells with 4

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SBTS Dimensioning Guideline

layer transmission in DL with 5/10/15/20 MHz each plus 4 inband NB-IoT cells with
equivalently 4TX4RX was added after Cell capacity per HW board – guard band (LTE4499,
LTE3570) table.

Carrier Aggregation dimensioning for site configuration

The X2-based (AirScale) LTE FDD and TDD inter-eNB CA configuration dimensioning table
was updated.

C-plane pool dimensioning

The C-plane pools and BB pools from SRAN 21B section was added.

AirScale traffic model

The Traffic model for ASIB/ASIL + 6 ABIN/ABIO configuration table was added.
The titles of the tables Traffic model for ASIB/ASIL + ABIN/ABIO configuration and Traffic
model for ASIB/ASIL + 3 ABIN/ABIO configuration tables was updated: ASIL was added.
The content of the tables was updated.

Changes between issues 14A (2021-03-26, SRAN 21A) and 14B (2021-06-04,
SRAN 21A)

Balancing RACH load between LCGs configured on the same SBTS

New procedure added.

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SBTS Dimensioning Guideline

1. Overview of the SBTS dimensioning

An overall view of the document content and its concepts

The SBTS Dimensioning Guideline document describes baseband (BB) dimensioning, SBTS
site composition, transport dimensioning, and capacity licenses.

Dimensioning refers to the actions and resources (HW and SW) required to achieve the
necessary capacity.

Capacity in a telecommunication network refers to the availability of the network to process

the user traffic. This term addresses strictly the user traffic, not the signaling between the
user equipment and the network.

The information on BB dimensioning and capacity refers to two types of system modules:
Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS (FSMF) and Nokia AirScale BTS. Within these system modules, three
technologies are configured: GSM, WCDMA, and LTE.

1.1 Baseband dimensioning

Overview of the baseband (BB) dimensioning in LTE, WCDMA and GSM

LTE baseband dimensioning

In LTE, the baseband capacity is expressed by the concept of cell sets, which describes
supported configurations. Supported configurations are defined by baseband (BB) and radio
frequency (RF) cell sets. One cell set is formed of one BB set and one or multiple RF sets.
During the SBTS installation, the operator must ensure that the RF sets are connected to
the proper system module ports. The SBTS autonomously decides which baseband unit
resources are used to handle given types of carriers.

BB cell sets define the supported BB configurations available to the customers. BB cell
sets are independent configurations for the SBTS. BB cell sets depict the capacity of the
HW used per technology and which RF ports can be used to connect the required RF units
(defined in the RF cell sets) for each RAT. SRAN and LTE cell sets can be combined to
provide the full required SBTS configuration and also to provide half subrack support.
RF cell sets define the maximum available radio capacity for one specific RAT (GSM,
WCDMA or LTE) or a combination of RATs (LTE + GSM, LTE + WCDMA, WCDMA + GSM or
LTE + WCDMA + GSM).

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The BTS configurations in FSMF are defined as cell sets that can be combined with each
other to build a full BTS configuration. The cell sets define usage of baseband (BB) resources
of BB cards.

Table 1: BB cell sets on FSMF

BB cards Cell set name

FSMF BCS (Basic Cell Set)

FSMF + FBBC/A ECS (Extended Cell Set)

FSMF + 2 x FBBC/A XLCS (XL Cell Set)

Table 2: BB cell sets on ABIA

BB cards Cell set name BB pooling

(1/2) x ABIA Basic Cell Set (BCS) deactivated

1 x BB pool Packed Cell Set (PCS) activated

1 x ABIA Extended Cell Set (ECS) deactivated

2 x BB pool Dual Packed Cell Set (DPCS) activated

(3/2) x ABIA XL Cell Set (XLCS) deactivated

3 x BB pool Triple Packed Cell Set (TPCS) activated

4 x BB pool Quad Packed Cell Set (QPCS) activated

1 ECS = 2 x BCSs, 1 DPCS = 2 x PCSs, 1 XLCS = 3 x BCSs, 1 TPCS = 3 x PCSs, 1 QPCS = 4 x PCSs

Table 3: BB cell sets on ABIO/ABIN

BB cards Usage of baseband Cell set name BB pooling

ABIO 1 BB pool BCS 1 - 6 RF ports activated

1 BB pool BCS 2 – 3 RF ports activated

2 BB pools ECS activated

ABIN 2 BB pools ECS activated

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Note:

In ABIO/ABIN, the BB pooling functionality must always be enabled.

The RF cell set is defined by the supported RATs, the supported RF units, their hardware
family number of optical cables, and their minimum speed. The user connects the RF unit
with the system module unit, according to the selected BB, RF sets, and defined rules when
constructing the SBTS configuration. These cell sets can be combined in various ways,
resulting in a more flexible configuration. The selected RF set impacts the number of
carriers handled for each RAT.

Note:

For more information, see the Reference Documentation/5G and SRAN Supported
Configurations/SBTS Supported Configurations document.

SRAN cell sets for shared operation (LTE + WCDMA, LTE + GSM, GSM + WCDMA) and
dedicated RAT operation (GSM and WCDMA) are defined on sub-baseband module level and
are combined as independent building blocks.

GSM baseband dimensioning

In GSM, the baseband capacity is expressed by the number of supported transceivers (TRXs),
that can be served by specified BB resources. The GSM traffic can be located on ¼ ABIA,
supporting 24 TRXs or up to ½ of ABIA, supporting 36 TRXs. The other ½ of the same ABIA
can be used to serve LTE or WCDMA traffic.

In one FSMF core module, GSM can occupy ½ of FSMF total resources or ¾ of FSMF total
resources. In the case where GSM occupies ½ of FSMF resources, one of four FSMF
processors are dedicated to cover GSM traffic.

For more information, see the GSM baseband dimensioning in SBTS section.

WCDMA baseband dimensioning

In WCDMA, the baseband capacity is referred in subunits, used to process the WCDMA cells
traffic.

The FSMF has 5.5 subunits. In case the FSMF is shared between technologies (WCDMA and
GSM on one system module), the number of available subunits is 3.5. One subunit in an
FSMF has a capacity of 96 channel elements (CEs) from Release 99 (Rel.99).

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SBTS Dimensioning Guideline

One extension baseband card (FBBA or FBBC) has six subunits.

A single Nokia AirScale BTS supports up to 24 cells with two-way RX Diversity (Div) and 12
with four-way RX Div.

In AirScale, the WCDMA traffic can be handled on ½ of ABIA (4 subunits), on ¾ of ABIA (6

subunits), or on the whole ABIA (8 subunits). The remaining resources of the same ABIA are
used to handle either LTE or GSM traffic. In this case, LTE always occupies ½ ABIA or one BB
pool.

For more information, see the WCDMA baseband dimensioning in SBTS section.

1.2 Common transport

Description of the common transport functionality

Common transport is one of the key functionalities introduced in Single RAN. Instead of
having one transport for each RAT, there is only one shared transport entity in SBTS.
Common transport can be connected to all three RAT application basebands or just one. The
site appears on the transport layer as a single IP host.

Network load is calculated separately for each RAT. The total network load is calculated as a
sum of loads of GSM, WCDMA and LTE technologies. GSM is treated as a fallback for WCDMA
in terms of voice services.

There are two possible approaches to common transport dimensioning in SBTS:

Based on traffic profile (recommended)
Based on air interface capabilities

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Figure 1: Approaches to SBTS common transport dimensioning

For more information, see the Common transport dimensioning in SBTS section.

1.3 Capacity licenses

Centralized SW License Server (CLS) description

There is one CLS per operator network. SW license keys are not physically installed on the
BTS, but are kept in the CLS. The CLS reserves and releases capacity for a specific feature
based on a network element request and without manual work. Such behavior ensures that
licensing smoothly follows changes in network management.

For more information on the CLS and central license management, see Introduction to
Centralized License Server in the NetAct Cloud documentation.

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2. SBTS site composition

Combinations of HW and RAT combinations supported by the SBTS

Figure 2: SBTS site composition

The figure above shows possible configurations of system modules:

Single-FSMF
Dual-FSMF
AirScale + FSMF
Single-AirScale common unit
Dual-AirScale common unit

2.1 FSMF site composition

The Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS system module has two main configurations: single-FSMF and
dual-FSMF.

The Flexi 10 BTS (FSMF) is a lean SRAN site solution with system module sharing, fiber
sharing, and RF sharing possibilities. It is a multi-radio platform for GSM, WCDMA, and LTE.
FSMF baseband (BB) capacity can be shared between GSM and LTE, or GSM and WCDMA.
FSMF or FBBC card baseband capacity can't be shared between LTE and WCDMA.

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Figure 3: Flexi 10 BTS System Module

The FSMF baseband capacity can be shared between GSM and LTE, or GSM and WCDMA.
FSMF or FBBA/FBBC card baseband capacity can be either LTE or WCDMA.

Single-FSMF
In the single-FSMF configuration, the maximum baseband capacity is limited to fully
equipped FSMF system module (FSMF + 2 x FBBA/FBBC). The supported configurations are:
GSM-LTE, GSM-WCDMA, WCDMA-LTE, and GSM-WCDMA-LTE.
In the system module sharing mode, GSM is allocated at the FSMF core only (not at
FBBA/FBBC card).

Figure 4: GSM-LTE shared system module configuration

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Table 4: GSM-LTE capacity (single FSMF)

Capacity extension GSM BB LTE BB

submodule

- 24 TRXs 1 RCS

FBBA/C 24 TRXs 1 RCS + 1 BCS

2 x FBBA/C 24 TRXs 1 RCS + 2 BCS

2 x FBBA/C 24 TRXs 1 RCS + 1 ECS

Reduced cell set (RCS):

• Up to 3 x 10 MHz LTE 2x2 MIMO with Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) in FSMF
• Up to 4 x 10 MHz LTE 2x2 MIMO without CoMP in FSMF

BCS = basic cell set, ECS = extended cell set, RCS = reduced cell set

Figure 5: GSM-WCDMA shared system module configuration with WCDMA deployed on both
FBBA/C

Table 5: GSM-WCDMA capacity (single FSMF)

Capacity extension submodule GSM BB WCDMA BB (number of subunits)

- 24 TRXs 3.5

FBBA/C 24 TRXs 9.5

2 x FBBA/C 24 TRXs 15.5

2 x FBBA/C 36 TRXs 14.5

Additional baseband resources for WCDMA can be allocated with FBBA/C cards.

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Figure 6: WCDMA-LTE shared system module configuration with WCDMA and LTE deployed on
both FBBA/C

Table 6: WCDMA-LTE capacity (single FSMF)

Capacity extension submodule WCDMA BB (number of subunits) LTE BB

2 x FBBC 5.5 2 x BCS

2 x FBBC 5.5 1 x ECS

2 x FBBA/C 11.5 1 x BCS

BCS = basic cell set, ECS = extended cell set

Figure 7: GSM-WCDMA-LTE shared system module configuration

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Table 7: GSM-WCDMA-LTE capacity (single FSMF)

Capacity extension submodule GSM BB WCDMA BB (number of subunits) LTE BB

2 x FBBA/C 24 TRXs 11.5 1 x RCS

2 x FBBA/C 24 TRXs 9.5 1 x BCS

2 x FBBA/C 36 TRXs 8.5 1 x BCS

BCS = basic cell set, RCS = reduced cell set

The figures show some example configurations. For more information on all the supported
configurations, please see the Reference Documentation/5G and SRAN Supported
Configurations/SBTS Supported Configurations document.

Dual-FSMF configuration
In the dual-FSMF configuration, the maximum baseband capacity is limited to two fully
equipped FSMF system modules working as a single SBTS. This is especially designed to
handle large LTE configurations, for which there isn't enough capacity in the FSMF
supporting GSM and WCDMA cells.

The SBTS capacity can be extended by using two system modules.

Figure 8: Dual-FSMF configuration

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Table 8: WCDMA-LTE capacity (dual FSMF)

Capacity extension submodule WCDMA BB (number of subunits) LTE BB

4 x FBBA/C 17.5 3 x BCS

4 x FBBA/C 17.5 1 x ECS + 1 x BCS

BCS = basic cell set, ECS = extended cell set

Table 9: GSM-WCDMA-LTE capacity (dual FSMF)

Capacity extension GSM BB WCDMA BB (number LTE BB

submodule of subunits)

4 x FBBA/C 24 TRXs 15.5 3 x BCS

4 x FBBA/C 36 TRXs 14.5 3 x BCS

4 x FBBA/C 24 TRXs 15.5 1 x BCS + 1 x ECS

4 x FBBA/C 36 TRXs 14.5 1 x BCS + 1 x ECS

BCS = basic cell set, ECS = extended cell set

Dual-FSMF configuration rules:

WCDMA and GSM applications are always deployed on the primary FSMF.
LTE applications always use the secondary FSMF (without backhaul connection).
Up to 3 x basic cell set (BCS) or 1 x extended cell set (ECS) + 1 x BCS available.
The connection between the FSMFs is supported only by the two-meter serial rapid I/O
(sRIO) and Open Base Station Architecture Initiative (OBSAI) fibers (FUFAS or FSFL fibers).
Only one OBSAI and SRIO fiber can be used between the FSMFs.
OBSAI ports used for interconnection are defined by the cell set configuration.
RF modules with LTE cells deployed are always connected to the secondary FSMF.

The BCS provides a maximum capacity of:

Up to 6 x 10 MHz LTE 2 x 2 MIMO

Up to 3 x 10 MHz LTE 4TX/4RX

Note:

4T/4RX = 4 x 2 MIMO in TM4 or 4RX diversity mode

Up to 3 x 20 MHz LTE 2 x 2 MIMO

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The ECS provides a maximum capacity of up to 3 x 20 MHz LTE 4TX/4RX or 4 x 4 MIMO.

Note:

4 x 4 MIMO with any cell bandwidth requires ECS.

Cell set deployment rules:

For BCS, LTE must be deployed on FSMF or FBBA/FBBC.

For ECS, LTE must be deployed on FSMF and FBBA/FBBC or on two FBBA/FBBC cards.

For more information on SBTS configurations, see the Reference Documentation/5G and
SRAN Supported Configurations/SBTS Supported Configurations document.

2.2 AirScale site composition

Description of the AirScale site composition with two main configurations: half subrack
and full subrack

The Nokia AirScale system module is deployed indoor as well as outdoor, but a special cover
is required for the outdoor capability.

The AirScale system module has the following components:

Nokia AirScale system module indoor subrack (AMIA) or outdoor subrack (AMOB)
Nokia AirScale system module common plug-in units (ASIA, ASIB, or ASIL)
Nokia AirScale system module capacity plug-in units (ABIA, ABIC, ABIO or ABIN)

Half subrack configurations

The maximum baseband capacity is limited to fully equipped half of AirScale system module:
One common plug-in unit
Maximum three capacity plug-in units

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Table 10: A summary of the half subrack supported configurations

Common plug-in unit Supported mixtures of capacity plug-in units

ASIA ABIA, ABIC

ASIB • ABIA, ABIC

• ABIA, ABIL
• ABIA, ABIO, ABIN

ASIL ABIA, ABIO, ABIN

For details on allowed RAT and fronthaul allocation in different capacity plug-in unit
supported configurations, see the Site composition tab in the Reference Documentation/5G
and SRAN Supported Configurations/SBTS Supported Configurations document.

The units may be deployed in any order, either in the left or right subrack half.

Full subrack configurations

The SBTS maximum baseband capacity is limited to fully equipped two halves of AirScale
system module working as a single SBTS:
Two common plug-in units
Maximum six capacity plug-in units (up to three capacity plug-in units per each common
plug-in unit)

Table 11: A summary of the full subrack supported configurations

Common plug-in unit Supported mixtures of capacity plug-in units

ASIA + ASIA ABIA

ASIB + ASIB • ABIA

• ABIA, ABIC
• ABIA, ABIO, ABIN

ASIB + ASIA ABIA

ASIL + ASIL ABIA, ABIO, ABIN

For details on allowed RAT and fronthaul allocation in different capacity plug-in unit
supported configurations, see the Site composition tab in the Reference Documentation/5G
and SRAN Supported Configurations/SBTS Supported Configurations document.

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AirScale RAT sharing for ABIA

In SRAN, the AirScale Indoor system module supports the system module sharing
functionality. A single BB card can be shared between two RATs. The AirScale system module
baseband dimensioning rules are interconnected between technologies (GSM, WCDMA, and
LTE per logical SBTS), because all technologies use ABIA cards.

WCDMA – GSM card sharing case (a):

Six subunits for WCDMA
Up to 24 TRXs with ¼ ABIA for GSM

Figure 9: WCDMA – GSM card sharing case (a)

WCDMA – GSM card sharing case (b):

Four subunits for WCDMA
Up to 36 TRXs with ½ ABIA for GSM

Figure 10: WCDMA – GSM card sharing case (b)

WCDMA – LTE card sharing case:

Four subunits for WCDMA
Remaining half ABIA for LTE allocation

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Figure 11: WCDMA – LTE card sharing case

Figure 12: Example of FDD-LTE and WCDMA BB cards sharing (12 subunits)

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Table 12: AirScale capacity

GSM WCDM LTE GSM/WCDMA GSM/LTE LTE/WCDMA

A

ABIA 24 TRXs 8 1 x ECS 24 TRXs / 6 24 TRXs / 1 x 1 x BCS / 4

(¼ ABIA) subuni or subunits BCS subunits
or ts 1 x DPCS or or or
36 TRXs 36 TRXs / 4 24 TRXs / 1 x 1 x PCS / 4
(½ ABIA) subunits PCS subunits
or
36 TRXs / 1 x
BCS
or
36 TRXs / 1 x
PCS

½ ABIA 24 TRXs 4 1 x BCS or - - -

(¼ ABIA) subuni 1 x PCS
or ts
36 TRXs
(½ ABIA)

BCS = Basic Cell Set; PCS = Packed Cell Set; DPCS = Dual Packed Cell Set: ECS = extended cell set

Note:

If the BB pooling functionality isn't activated, the cell capacity is less for LTE. For more
information on the LTE cell capacity, see the Reference Documentation/5G and SRAN
Supported Configurations/SBTS Supported Configurations document.

2.3 AirScale + FSMF site composition

Description of site composition using AirScale and FSMF system modules together as a
single logical high-capacity SBTS with three (GSM, WCDMA and LTE) radio access
technologies. The FSMF supports GSM, WCDMA or GSM+WCDMA, while AirScale supports
only LTE FDD or LTE TDD.

The primary core consists of a half AirScale subrack (left or right) that has a common plug-in
unit: ASIA or ASIB and up to three capacity plug-in units. The secondary core consists of a
FSMF system module and up to two FBBA/FBBC extension modules.

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Figure 13: Connections between the primary and secondary cores

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3. Baseband dimensioning
Overall information about baseband (BB) dimensioning for different RATs

3.1 LTE baseband dimensioning in SBTS

Baseband (BB) dimensioning for Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS and AirScale system modules
operating in LTE mode

3.1.1 LTE cell capacity without the feature impact

Tables presenting the cell capacity for FDD and TDD

FSMF cell capacity

Table 13: FSMF cell capacity for FDD

HW board TX / RX DL MIMO Bandwidth (MHz) Number of cells

FSMF / FBBA / FBBC 2 / 2, 2 / 4 * 2x2 5 / 10 6 ***

FSMF / FBBA / FBBC 2 / 2, 2 / 4 2x2 15 / 20 3

FSMF 4/4 4x2 5 / 10 3

FSMF + FBBA / FBBC 4/4 4x2 15 / 20 3

FSMF + FBBA / FBBC 4/4 4x2 5 / 10 6

FSMF + 2 FBBA / FBBC or 4/4 4x2 5 / 10 9

FSMF + FBBA + FBBC

FSMF + FBBA / FBBC 4/4 4 x 4, 4 x 2 ** 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 3

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Note:

* To achieve the same capacity for 2TX4RX as for 2TX2RX the LNBTS_FDD Activate
optimized baseband resource usage (actOptimizedBbUsage) parameter
needs to be set to true.

** DL MIMO 4 x 2 TM9 requires the same capacity as DL MIMO 4 x 4​.

*** Depending on the value of the LNBTS Activate flexible base band usage
(actFlexBbUsage) parameter:
Up to 6 cells (including 6) if the actFlexBbUsage parameter value is true.
Maximum 3 cells if the actFlexBbUsage parameter value is false.

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Table 14: FSMF and FSIH cell capacity for TDD

HW board TX / RX DL MIMO Bandwidth (MHz) Number of cells

FSMF / FBBA 2/2 2x2 10 / 15 / 20 3

4/4 4 x 2, 4 x 4 10 / 15 / 20 1

8/8 8x2 10 / 15 / 20 1

FSMF + FBBA 2/2 2x2 10 / 15 / 20 6

4/4 4 x 2, 4 x 4 10 / 15 / 20 3

8/8 8x2 10 / 15 / 20 2

FSMF + 2 FBBA 2/2 2x2 10 / 15 / 20 9

4/4 4 x 2, 4 x 4 10 / 15 / 20 6

8/8 8x2 10 / 15 / 20 3

FSMF / FBBA 2/2 2x2 10 / 15 / 20 4

4/4 4 x 2, 4 x 4 10 / 15 / 20 3

8/8 8x2 10 / 15 / 20 3

FSIH / FBIH 2/2 2x2 10 / 15 / 20 8

4/4 4 x 2, 4 x 4 10 / 15 / 20 6

8/8 8x2 10 / 15 / 20 6

FSIH + 2 FBIH 2/2 2x2 10 / 15 / 20 12

4/4 4 x 2, 4 x 4 10 / 15 / 20 9

8/8 8x2 10 / 15 / 20 9

Note:

2TX/4RX capacity is the same as 4TX/4RX.

AirScale cell capacity

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Table 15: ABIA cell capacity for FDD

Cell bandwidth (MHz) Antenna conguration (TX / RX) Per BB pool Per ABIA Per BTS

5 / 10 2/2 8 16 96

15 / 20 2/2 6 12 72

5 / 10 and 15 / 20 2/2 4+4 16 96

5 / 10 and 15 / 20 4/4 2+2 8 48

5 / 10 4/4 6 12 72

15 / 20 4/4 3 6 36

Starting with the LTE4265: Split L1 with Fixed Beam Sectorization for 16TRX FDD mMIMO
feature (from LTE 19 onward) and with the dynamic baseband pooling (provided by the
LTE2733: Baseband Pooling feature) enabled, each ABIA capacity plug-in unit supports up to
4 cells with 4 layer transmission in DL with 5/10/15/20 MHz bandwidth.

Table 16: ABIO (either LTE or NB-IoT) cell capacity for FDD

Cell bandwidth (MHz) Antenna Cells (either Cells (either LTE Cells (either LTE
conguration LTE or NB- or NB-IoT) per or NB-IoT) per
(TX / RX) IoT) per BB ABIO BTS (6 x ABIO)
pool

5 / 10 / 15 / 20 2/2 9 24 144

5 / 10 4/4 9 24 144

15 / 20 4/4 6 18 108

Note:

The BB pool can support a mix of cells with different antenna number and different
bandwidths, according to following rules:
Carriers with different bandwidths can be mixed freely in the same BB cell set.
Cells with different TX/RX transmission schemes can be mixed freely in the same
BB cell set cell.
The maximum cell amount is defined by the dimensioning of the most demanding
cell, considering the bandwidth and TX/RX transmission scheme.

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Table 17: ABIN (either LTE or NB-IoT) cell capacity for FDD

Cell bandwidth Antenna Cells (either Cells (either Cells (either LTE
(MHz) conguration (TX / LTE or NB-IoT) LTE or NB-IoT) or NB-IoT) per
RX) per BB pool per ABIO BTS (6 x ABIO)

5 / 10 / 15 / 20 2/2 6 12 72

5 / 10 4/4 6 12 72

15 / 20 4/4 3 / 6* 9 54

*3 cells or maximum 6 cells per BB pool

Note:

The BB pool can support a mix of cells with different antenna number and different
bandwidths, according to following rules:
Carriers with different bandwidths can be mixed freely in the same BB cell set.
Cells with different TX/RX transmission schemes can be mixed freely in the same
BB cell set cell.
The maximum cell amount is defined by the dimensioning of the most demanding
cell, considering the bandwidth and TX/RX transmission scheme.

Table 18: ABIA cell capacity for TDD

Cell bandwidth (MHz) Antenna conguration Per BB Per ABIA Per BTS Plug-in unit
(TX / RX) pool

10 / 15 / 20 2 / 2, 4 / 4 3 6 36 ASIA / ASIB

10 / 15 / 20 8/8 2 4 24 ASIA / ASIB

10 / 20 32 / 32 - 1 6 ASIA

10 / 15 / 20 64 / 64 - 0,5 3 ASIA

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Table 19: ABIC CPRI mMIMO cell capacity for TDD

Cell bandwidth (MHz) Antenna conguration (TX / RX) Per BB pool Per ABIC Per BTS

10 / 20 32 / 32 2 4 24

10 / 15 / 20 64 / 64 1 2 12

Table 20: ABIC eCPRI mMIMO cell capacity for TDD

Cell bandwidth (MHz) Antenna conguration (TX / RX) Per BB pool Per ABIC Per BTS

10 / 20 64 / 64 2 4 24

Table 21: ABIO cell capacity for TDD

Cell bandwidth (MHz) Antenna Per BB pool Per ABIO Per BTS (6 x
conguration ABIO)
(TX / RX)

10 / 15 / 20 2/2 4 8 48

10 / 15 / 20 4/4 4 8 48

10 / 15 / 20 8/8 4 8 48

20 64 / 64 3 6 36

Note:

The BB pool can support a mix of cells with different antenna number and different
bandwidths, according to following rules:
Carriers with different bandwidths can be mixed freely in the same BB cell set.
Cells with different TX/RX transmission schemes can be mixed freely in the same
BB cell set cell.
The maximum cell amount is defined by the dimensioning of the most demanding
cell, considering bandwidth and TX/RX transmission scheme.

Note:

In case of 1.4/3MHz cell and donut cell, BB pool limit is not reached.

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Table 22: ABIN cell capacity for TDD

Cell bandwidth (MHz) Antenna Per BB pool Per ABIN Per BTS (6*ABIN)
conguration
(TX / RX)

10 / 15 / 20 2/2 2 4 24

10 / 15 / 20 4/4 2 4 24

10 / 15 / 20 8/8 2 4 24

20 64 / 64 2 3 18

Note:

The BB pool can support a mix of cells with different antenna number and different
bandwidths, according to following rules:
Carriers with different bandwidths can be mixed freely in the same BB cell set.
Cells with different TX/RX transmission schemes can be mixed freely in the same
BB cell set cell.
The maximum cell amount is defined by the dimensioning of the most demanding
cell, considering bandwidth and TX/RX transmission scheme.

3.1.2 Limits of a baseband pool

Built-in limits of a baseband (BB) pool and the maximum RRC context supported for FDD
and TDD

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Table 23: Built-in limits of a BB pool for FDD

Resource ABIA ABIO ABIN

RRC context 2520 3780 1890

Data radio bearers 7560 11340 5670

(DRBs)

Complex DRBs (GBR) 960 1440 720

Physical random access 512 512 / Layer 1 pool 512 / Layer 1 pool
channel (PRACH) Root
Sequences X Antennas

Table 24: Built-in limits of a BB pool for TDD

Resource ABIA ABIO ABIN

RRC context 1600 3780 1890

DRBs 4800 11340 5670

Complex DRBs (GBR) 600 800 400

PRACH Root 64 256 256

Sequences X Antennas

Table 25: Peak RRC context per cell for FDD

Cell Bandwidth Peak RRC context

5 MHz 850

10 MHz 1000

15 MHz 1250

20 MHz 1500

Note:

* This functionality is supported only when the sum of active users in all cells doesn't
reach the limit per BB pool.

For more information on LTE baseband dimensioning in SBTS, see the Reference

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Documentation/5G and SRAN Supported Configurations/SBTS Supported Configurations

document.

Table 26: Number of users per cell for FSMF for TDD

Conguration Maximum number of active UEs per cell

FSMF with Limited feature set 20 MHz 15 MHz 10 MHz

TDD Cong1 800 800 550

TDD Cong2 630 630 550

FSMF without Limited feature set 20 MHz 15 MHz 10 MHz

TDD Cong1 600 600 400

TDD Cong2 420 420 400

FSMF Supercell 20 MHz 15 MHz 10 MHz

TDD Cong1 400 N/A N/A

TDD Cong2 400 N/A N/A

FSMF HighSpeed 20 MHz 15 MHz 10 MHz

TDD Cong1 400 N/A N/A

TDD Cong2 400 N/A N/A

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Table 27: Number of users per cell for AirScale for TDD

Conguration Maximum number of active UEs per Maximum number of active UEs
pool per cell

AirScale ABIA 20 MHz 15 MHz 10 MHz 5 MHz 20 15 MHz 10 5 MHz

Normal Cell MHz MHz

TDD Cong0 1200 1200 1200 576 400 400 400 192

TDD Cong1 1600 1600 1600 900 1200 1200 600 300

TDD Cong2 1600 1600 1600 900 1200 1200 600 300

AirScale ABIA SFN 20 MHz 15 MHz 10 MHz 5 MHz 20 15 MHz 10 5 MHz

MHz MHz

TDD Cong1 N/A N/A N/A N/A 800 800 600 N/A

TDD Cong2 N/A N/A N/A N/A 800 800 600 N/A

AirScale ABIA 20 MHz 15 MHz 10 MHz 5 MHz 20 15 MHz 10 5 MHz

HighSpeed MHz MHz

TDD Cong1 N/A N/A N/A N/A 400 400 400 N/A

TDD Cong2 N/A N/A N/A N/A 400 400 400 N/A

AirScale ABIA 20 MHz 15 MHz 10 MHz 5 MHz 20 15 MHz 10 5 MHz

mMIMO MHz MHz

TDD Cong2 1600 1600 1600 N/A 1200 1200 600 N/A

Note:

TDD Config 0 doesn't support the LTE2615: Extended CQI period for high capacity cells
feature.

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Note:

SRS configuration for maximum number of users per cell (TDD):

LNCEL_TDD SRS downlink MIMO mode dependant configuration
(srsDlMimoModeDepConf) SRS bandwidth (srsBandwidth) = 3hbw (4PRB)
LNCEL_TDD SRS downlink MIMO mode dependant configuration
(srsDlMimoModeDepConf) SRS periodicity of UE transmission
(srsUePeriodicity) = 80ms
LNCEL_TDD SRS downlink MIMO mode dependant configuration
(srsDlMimoModeDepConf) SRS transmission on 2 symbols of UpPTS
act/deact (srsOnTwoSymUpPts) = true

Table 28: Number of users per cell for AirScale CPRI mMIMO for TDD

Airscale ABIC Maximum number of active UEs per Maximum number of active UEs per
CPRI mMIMO pool cell
Conguration
20 MHz 15 MHz 10 MHz 20 MHz 15 MHz 10 MHz

TDD Cong2 1600 1600 1200 1200 1200 600

Table 29: Layer number per cell for AirScale CPRI mMIMO for TDD

Airscale ABIC Layer number per pool Layer number per cell
CPRI mMIMO
Conguration 20 MHz 15 MHz 10 MHz 20 MHz 15 MHz 10 MHz

64TRX TDD DL 16 DL 16 DL 16 DL 16 DL 16 DL 16
Cong2 Layer Layer Layer Layer Layer Layer
UL 8 Layer UL 8 Layer UL 8 Layer UL 8 Layer UL 8 Layer UL 8 Layer

32TRX TDD DL 16 N/A DL 16 DL 8 Layer DL 16 DL 16

Cong2 Layer Layer UL 4 Layer Layer Layer
UL 8 Layer UL 8 Layer UL 4 Layer UL 4 Layer

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Table 30: Number of users per cell for AirScale eCPRI mMIMO for TDD

Airscale ABIC Maximum number of active UEs per Maximum number of active UEs per
eCPRI mMIMO pool cell
Conguration
20 MHz 15 MHz 10 MHz 20 MHz 15 MHz 10 MHz

TDD Cong2 1600 1600 1200 1200 1200 600

Table 31: Layer number per cell for AirScale eCPRI mMIMO for TDD

Airscale ABIC eCPRI Layer number per pool Layer number per cell
mMIMO Conguration
20 MHz 10 MHz 20 MHz 10 MHz

64TRX TDD Cong2 DL 20 Layer DL 20 Layer DL 20 Layer DL 20 Layer

UL 16 Layer UL 16 Layer UL 8 Layer UL 8 Layer

3.1.3 UL CoMP cell capacity

Feature impact on cell capacity

3.1.3.1 Inter-eNB flexible UL CoMP capacity on AirScale

Cell capacity details for Centralized Radio Access Network (CRAN) AirScale flexible uplink
coordinated multipoint (UL CoMP) according to LTE3897: Flexible Intra eNB UL CoMP and
LTE3933: Flexible Inter eNB UL CoMP.

Details on the cell capacity requirements for Centralized Radio Access Network (CRAN)
deployments with flexible uplink coordinated multipoint (UL CoMP) on AirScale System
Modules are as follows:

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Table 32: CRAN AirScale flexible UL CoMP cell capacity

Bandwidth (MHz) TX/RX cells per BB pool cells per ABIA cells per eNB

5/10 2/2 4 8 48

15/20 2/2 3 6 36

5/10 and 15/20 2/2 3 or 4 6 or 8 40 (20+20)

5/10 and 15/20 4/4 3 or 4 6 or 8 40 (20+20)

5/10 4/4 4 8 48

15/20 4/4 3 6 36

3.1.3.2 Intra-eNB fixed UL CoMP capacity on AirScale

List of supported intra-eNB UL CoMP capacity and configurations on Nokia AirScale BTS

FDD configurations
With the introduction of the LTE2733: Baseband Pooling feature, the following intra-eNB UL
Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) configurations are supported on FDD cells, introduced with
the LTE1402: Uplink Intra-eNB CoMP and LTE1691: Uplink intra-eNB CoMP 4RX features.

A CoMP set consists of maximum 3 cells. The cells of an UL CoMP cell set must belong to one
baseband (BB) pool, no matter if the baseband (BB) pooling is activated or not.

If UL CoMP set consisting of 3 cells each at 10 MHz at 2RX/2TX is activated, the following
number of normal cells (not using UL CoMP) can be allocated to its BB pool:
3 normal 20 MHz cells at 2RX/2TX, or
3 normal 10 MHz cells at 2RX/2TX, or
3 normal 10 MHz cells at 4RX/4TX, or
1 normal 20 MHz cells at 4RX/4TX

If UL CoMP set consisting of 3 cells each at 20 MHz at 2RX/2TX is activated, the following
number of normal cells can be allocated to its baseband pool:
3 normal 20 MHz cells at 2RX/2TX, or
3 normal 10 MHz cells at 2RX/2TX, or
3 normal 10 MHz cells at 4RX/4TX, or
1 normal 20 MHz cells at 4RX/4TX.

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If the UL CoMP set consisting of 3 cells each at 10 MHz at 4RX/4TX is activated, the
following number of normal cells can be allocated to its baseband pool:
3 normal 20 MHz cells at 2RX/2TX, or
1 normal 20 MHz cells at 4RX/4TX, or
3 normal 10 MHz cells at 2RX/2TX, or
3 normal 10 MHz cells at 4RX/4TX.

If the UL CoMP sets are activated without normal cells, the following combinations are
allowed:
2 UL CoMP sets consisting of 3 cells each at 10 MHz at 2RX/2TX
2 UL CoMP sets consisting of 3 cells each at 20 MHz at 2RX/2TX
2 UL CoMP sets consisting of 3 cells each at 10 MHz at 4RX/4TX
1 UL CoMP set consisting of 3 cells each at 20 MHz at 4RX/4TX.

All available configurations are presented in the tables below:

Table 33: LTE1691 and LTE1402 configurations on AirScale in one BB pool (with BB pool
activated)

UL CoMP 10 MHz 20 MHz 10 MHz 20 MHz

cells 2RX/2TX 2RX/2TX 4RX/4TX 4RX/4TX

Normal cells

- 2x 3 cells 2x 3 cells 2x 3 cells 3 cells

10MHz 2RX/2TX 3 cells + 3 cells 3 cells + 3 cells 3 cells + 3 cells -

20MHz 2RX/2TX 3 cells + 3 cells 3 cells + 3 cells 3 cells + 3 cells -

10MHz 4RX/4TX 3 cells + 3 cells 3 cells + 3 cells 3 cells + 3 cells -

20MHz 4RX/4TX 1 cell + 3 cells 1 cell + 3 cells 1 cell + 3 cells -

Note:

In the table above, a 20 MHz cell can be replaced by a 15 MHz cell and a 10 MHz cell
can be replaced by a 5 MHz cell.

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Table 34: LTE1691 and LTE1402 FDD configurations on half ABIA

5/ 10 MHz 2 RX/ 2 TX 15/ 20 MHz 2 RX/ 2 5/ 10 MHz 4 RX/ 4 TX 15/20 MHz 4 RX/4 TX
TX

3 cells 3 cells 2 cells 2 cells

TDD configurations

Table 35: LTE2128 TDD supported configurations in one BB pool

Conguration 8RX UL CoMP sets 8RX CoMP set with CA

ABIA 2 8RX CoMP sets with 2 cells yes

1 8RX CoMP set with 3 cells yes

2 x ABIA 4 8RX CoMP sets with 2 cells yes

2 8RX CoMP sets with 3 cells yes

3 x ABIA 6 8RX CoMP sets with 2 cells yes

4 8RX CoMP sets with 3 cells yes

Table 36: LTE2104 TDD supported configurations in one BB pool (with BB pool activated)

Conguration 4RX UL CoMP sets 4RX CoMP set with CA

ABIA 3 4RX CoMP sets with 2 cells yes

2 4RX CoMP sets with 3 cells yes

2 x ABIA 6 4RX CoMP sets with 2 cells yes

4 4RX CoMP sets with 3 cells yes

3 x ABIA 9 4RX CoMP sets with 2 cells yes

6 4RX CoMP sets with 3 cells yes

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Table 37: LTE2104 TDD supported configurations in one BB pool (with BB pool deactivated)

Conguration 4RX UL CoMP sets 4RX CoMP set with CA

ABIA 2 4RX CoMP sets with 2 cells yes

1 4RX CoMP set with 3 cells yes

2 x ABIA 4 4RX CoMP sets with 2 cells yes

2 4RX CoMP sets with 3 cells yes

3 x ABIA 6 4RX CoMP sets with 2 cells yes

4 4RX CoMP sets with 3 cells yes

Table 38: CB006754 TDD supported configurations in one BB pool (with BB pool activated)

Conguration 2RX UL CoMP sets 2RX CoMP set with CA

ABIA 3 2RX CoMP sets with 2 cells yes

2 2RX CoMP sets with 3 cells yes

2 x ABIA 6 2RX CoMP sets with 2 cells yes

4 2RX CoMP sets with 3 cells yes

3 x ABIA 9 2RX CoMP sets with 2 cells yes

6 2RX CoMP sets with 3 cells yes

Table 39: CB006754 TDD supported configurations in one BB pool (with BB pool deactivated)

Conguration 2RX UL CoMP sets 2RX CoMP set with CA

ABIA 2 2RX CoMP sets with 2 cells yes

1 2RX CoMP set with 3 cells yes

2 x ABIA 4 2RX CoMP sets with 2 cells yes

2 2RX CoMP sets with 3 cells yes

3 x ABIA 6 2RX CoMP sets with 2 cells yes

4 2RX CoMP sets with 3 cells yes

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3.1.3.3 Intra-eNB fixed UL CoMP capacity on FSMF

List of available intra-eNB UL CoMP configurations on FSMF

The maximum number of cells and type of cells in a Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) set is
limited by digital signal processor (DSP) capabilities. The tables below list supported type of
CoMP cell and possibility of parallel activation of carrier aggregation (CA) on a given
hardware configuration.

Table 40: LTE2128 TDD supported configurations

Conguration 8RX UL CoMP sets 8RX CoMP set with Carrier

Aggregation

FSMF Not supported N/A

FSMF + 1 x FBBA 1 8RX CoMP set with 2 cells No

FSMF + 2 x FBBA 1 8RX CoMP set with 2 or 3 No

cells

FSIH 1 8RX CoMP set with 2 or 3 No

cells

FSIH + 1 x FBIH 2 8RX CoMP sets with 2 or 3 Yes

cells

FSIH + 2 x FBIH 3 8RX CoMP sets with 2 or 3 Yes

cells

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Table 41: LTE2104 TDD supported configurations

Conguration 4RX UL CoMP sets 4RX CoMP set with Carrier

Aggregation

FSMF 1 4RX CoMP set with 2 cells No

FSMF + 1 x FBBA 1 4RX CoMP set with 2 or 3 No

cells

2 4RX CoMP set with 2 cells Yes

FSMF + 2 x FBBA all FSMF + 1 x FBBA Yes

congurations

2 4RX CoMP set with 2 or 3 Yes

cells

Table 42: LTE1691 and LTE1402 FDD supported configurations

HW TX/RX DL MIMO Bandwidth Number of CoMP

conguration cells

one BB card 2TX/2RX 2x2 5 / 10 MHz 6*

(FSMF or FBBA or
FBBC)

one BB card 2TX/2RX 2x2 15 / 20 MHz 3

(FSMF or FBBA or
FBBC)

two BB cards 4TX/4RX 4 x 4, 4 x 2 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 3

(FSMF+FBBA or MHz
FSMF +FBBC)

two BB cards 2TX/4RX 2x2 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 3 **

(FSMF+FBBA or MHz
FSMF +FBBC)

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Note:

* Depending on the value of the LNBTS Activate flexible base band usage
(actFlexBbUsage) parameter:
Up to 6 cells (including 6) if the actFlexBbUsage parameter value is true.
Maximum 3 cells if the actFlexBbUsage parameter value is false.

** When 2 x 4 RX cells of an UL CoMP cell set, it needs two BB cards (FSMF + FBBA or
FSMF + FBBC) and the maximum cell number is 3.

Table 43: LTE1402 TDD supported configurations

HW TX/RX DL MIMO Bandwidth Number of CoMP

Conguration cells

one BB card 2TX/2RX 2x2 10 / 15 / 20 MHz 3

(FSMF or FBBA or
FBBC)

one BB card 2TX/2RX 2x2 10 / 15 / 20 MHz 3

(FSIH or FBIH)

Table 44: LTE1691 TDD supported configurations

Conguration 4RX UL CoMP sets 4RX CoMP set with Carrier

Aggregation

FSMF 1 4RX CoMP set with 2 cells No

FSMF + 1 x FBBA 1 4RX CoMP set with 2 or 3 cell No

FSMF + 2 x FBBA 1 4RX CoMP set with 2 or 3 cell No

FSIH 1 4RX CoMP set with 2 or 3 No

cells

FSIH + 1 x FBIH 2 4RX CoMP sets with 2 or 3 Yes

cells

FSIH + 2 x FBIH 3 4RX CoMP sets with 2 or 3 Yes

cells

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3.1.4 NB IoT cell capacity

NB-IoT cell capacity

3.1.4.1 NB-IoT cell capacity for AirScale

Details on the AirScale cell capacity values per release

NB-IoT guard band/inband

Table 45: Cell capacity per pool (half ABIA)– guard band and inband with anchor carrier
(LTE5205 and LTE5393)

Cell bandwidth Antenna conguration Number of LTE host cells Number of NB-IoT cells

5/10 MHz 2RX 6 6

15/20 MHz 2RX 3 3

5/10 MHz 4RX 4 4

15/20 MHz 4RX 3 3

Note:

When the LTE5418: NB-IoT 100 km Cell Range (Guardband/Inband) feature is

activated, the number of NB-IoT cells is half of the values shown in the table above.

Note:

The LTE5393 feature supports only the 15/20 MHz 4RX configuration.

Note:

NB-IoT guard band isn't supported in 5 MHz cells.

In addition, the following specific configuration is supported: 4RX, 2 * 20 MHz LTE host cells
+ 2 * NB-IoT cells + 10 MHz LTE cell per pool.

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Table 46: Cell capacity per pool (half ABIA) – guard band and inband with anchor carrier and
legacy UL CoMP (LTE5268 and LTE5393)

Cell bandwidth Antenna conguration Number of LTE host cells Number of NB-IoT cells

5/10 MHz 2RX 3 3

15/20 MHz 2RX 3 3

5/10 MHz 4RX 3 3

15/20 MHz 4RX 3 3

Note:

NB-IoT guard band isn't supported in 5 MHz cells.

Table 47: Cell capacity per pool (half ABIA)– guard band and inband with anchor carrier and
non-anchor carrier (LTE4036)

Cell bandwidth Antenna conguration Number of LTE host cells Number of NB-IoT
carriers

5/10 MHz 2RX 6 6

15/20 MHz 2RX 3 6

5/10 MHz 4RX 4 4

15/20 MHz 4RX 2 4

Note:

NB-IoT guard band isn't supported in 5 MHz cells.

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Table 48: Cell capacity per pool (half ABIA)– guard band and inband with anchor carrier, non-
anchor carrier, and fixed UL CoMP (LTE4036)

Cell bandwidth Antenna conguration Number of LTE host cells Number of NB-IoT cells

5/10 MHz 2RX 3 6

15/20 MHz 2RX 3 6

5/10 MHz 4RX 3 4

Note:

NB-IoT guard band isn't supported in 5 MHz cells.

Table 49: Cell capacity per pool (half ABIA)– guard band and inband with anchor carrier, non-
anchor carrier, and legacy UL CoMP (LTE4898)

Cell bandwidth Antenna conguration Number of LTE host cells Number of NB-IoT
carriers

5/10 MHz 4RX 3 4

Table 50: Cell capacity per pool (half ABIA) – inband in 3 MHz cell (LTE4196)

Cell bandwidth Antenna conguration Number of LTE host cells Number of NB-IoT cells

3 MHz 2RX 4 4

3 MHz 4RX 3 3

Note:

The baseband (BB) pooling functionality isn't supported in 3 MHz cell.

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Table 51: Cell capacity per ABIA – guard band and inband with anchor carrier and non-anchor
carrier and flexible UL CoMP (LTE5329)

Number of Cell bandwidth Antenna Number of Number of Number of

BB pools conguration LTE host NB-IoT wideband cells
cells at Band carriers at Band B
A

1 5/10 MHz 4RX 2 4 1

2 5/10 MHz 4RX 1 2 2

Note:

NB-IoT guard band isn't supported in 5 MHz cells.

NB-IoT standalone

Table 52: Cell capacity per pool (half ABIA) – standalone (LTE3667)

Antenna conguration Number of NB-IoT cells

2RX 8

4RX 4

Note:

When the LTE4547: NB-IoT 100 km Cell Range feature is activated, the number of NB-
IoT cells is half of the values shown in the table above.

Mixed NB-IoT configurations

In a two antenna configuration, the maximum number of wideband cells (cells with or
without inband NB-IoT cells) and standalone NB-IoT cells is limited to 6 cells for 10 MHz or 3
cells for 20 MHz per BB pool. The total number of NB-IoT carriers is limited to six. For a four
antenna configuration, the maximum number of wideband cells (cells with or without inband
NB-IoT cells) and standalone NB-IoT cells is limited to 4 cells for 10 MHz or 3 cells for 20
MHz per BB pool. The total number of NB-IoT carriers is limited to four.

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Table 53: Cell capacity per pool (half ABIA): mixed NB-IoT configurations

Cell bandwidth Antenna conguration Number of LTE host Number of NB-IoT cells
cells (guard-band or inband)

10 MHz 2RX2TR or 2RX1TX 6 6

20 MHz 3 3

10 MHz 4RX2TX or 4RX4TX 4 4

20 MHz 3 3

A wideband cell (cells with or without NB-IoT inband cells) can be replaced by one standalone
cell with the same number of antennas.

3.1.4.2 NB-IoT Cell Capacity for FSMF

Details on the FSMF cell capacity values per release

NB-IoT guard band/inband

Table 54: Cell capacity per HW board – guard band (LTE4499, LTE3570)

HW board Cell Antenna Number of LTE Number of NB-

bandwidth conguratio host cells IoT cells
n

FSMF or FBBA / FBBC 10 MHz 2RX 3 3

FSMF or FBBA / FBBC 15/20 MHz 2RX 3 3

FSMF or FBBA / FBBC 10 MHz 4RX 3 3

FSMF and FBBA / FBBC * 15/20 MHz 4RX 3 3

Note:

NB-IoT guard band isn't supported in 5 MHz cells.

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Note:

* Two HW boards are needed.

Table 55: Cell capacity per HW board – inband (LTE3071) and inband in 3 MHz cell (LTE4196)

HW board Cell Antenna Number of LTE Number of NB-

bandwidth conguratio host cells IoT cells
n

FSMF or FBBA / FBBC 5/10 MHz 2RX 3 3

FSMF or FBBA / FBBC 15/20 MHz 2RX 3 3

FSMF or FBBA / FBBC 5/10 MHz 4RX 3 3

FSMF and FBBA / FBBC * 15/20 MHz 4RX 3 3

FSMF or FBBA / FBBC 3 MHz 2RX 3 3

FSMF or FBBA / FBBC 3 MHz 4RX 3 3

Note:

* Two HW boards are needed.

Only anchor carrier is supported in 3MHz host cells

Table 56: Cell capacity per HW board – guard band and inband, with anchor carrier and legacy
UL CoMP (LTE5268)

HW board Cell bandwidth Antenna Number of LTE Number of NB-

conguration host cells IoT cells

FSMF or FBBA / 15/20 MHz 2RX 3 3

FBBC

NB-IoT standalone

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Table 57: Cell capacity per HW board – standalone (LTE3543)​

HW board Antenna conguration Number of NB-IoT cells

FSMF or FBBA / FBBC 2RX 6

FSMF or FBBA / FBBC 4RX 3

Table 58: Cell capacity per HW board - standalone and legacy UL ComP (LTE4819)

HW board Cell Bandwidth Antenna Number of LTE Number of NB-

conguration cells IoT cells

FSMF + FBBC 5/10 MHz 2TX4RX 3 3

3.1.5 Carrier Aggregation dimensioning for site

configuration
Carrier Aggregation (CA) dimensioning values for site configuration

The aim of CA is to boost mean and peak user throughput by sending user data
simultaneously over two or three carriers. To make the aggregation of carriers possible, a
regular cell (primary cell (PCell)) is paired with an additional logical cell (secondary cell (SCell))
which overlaps the same site sector.

Table 59: SRIO-based (FSMF) LTE FDD and TDD inter-eNB CA configuration dimensioning

FDD eNB HW resource LTE FDD PCell number LTE TDD Scell bandwitdh

FSMF / FBBC (one FSP) 3* 10 MHz 2TX/2RX 90 MHz two layers

FSMF + FBBC / FBBA (two FSPs) 3 * 20 MHz 2TX/2RX or 2TX/4RX 120 MHz two layers
3 * 10 MHz 4Tx4Rx
6 * 10 MHz 2Tx2Rx

FSMF + FBBC / FBBA + FBBC 3 * 20 MHz 4TX/4RX with 4 * 4 120 MHz two layers
(three FSPs) MIMO
Two times following with two
layers
• 3 * 20 MHz 2TX/2RX or 2Tx4Rx
• 3 * 10 MHz 4TX/4RX
• 6 * 10 MHz 2TX/2RX

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Note:

A 2TX/2RX cell can be replaced by a 1TX/2RX with the same cell bandwidth.
Each LTE-FDD PCell can host one Narrowband IoT (NB IoT) inband or guardband.
CAT-M can be added, without restrictions in terms of site configuration (legacy
performance such as capacity and throughput is degraded accordingly).
For more information, see NB- IoT cell capacity for FSMF.

Note:

For more information, see the LTE2270: LTE TDD+FDD Inter eNB CA Basic BTS
Configurations feature description in the Operating Documentation/Single RAN
Features.

Table 60: X2-based (AirScale) LTE FDD and TDD inter-eNB CA configuration dimensioning

Cell type Supported number of cells per Supported number of

packed cell set with the cells per packed cell set
LTE3022/LTE4537 with the LTE5425

20 MHz 4Ant 2 2

10 MHz 4Ant 3 4

20 MHz 2Ant 3 4

10 MHz 2Ant 6 8

1 * 10 MHz + 2 * 20 MHz N/A 3

4Ant

10 / 20 MHz mMIMO N/A 2

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Note:

LTE3022/SR001419: Inter-site Carrier Aggregation only does post-checks. Cross-

ABIA configurations are not supported. For more information, see the
LTE3022/SR001419: Inter-site Carrier Aggregation feature description.
Each LTE-FDD Pcell can host one NB-IoT inband or guardband. CAT-M can be
added, without restrictions. For more information, see NB-IoT cell capacity for
AirScale.

3.1.6 C-plane pool dimensioning

Overview of C-plane pool dimensioning for the AirScale system module, ABIA card BB
pool mapping to an ASIA/ASIB C-plane pool, C-plane pool capacity, C-plane events, and C-
plane pool balancing during normal load and heavy load.

BB to C-plane pool allocation for ASIA/ASIB/ASIL + ABIA configurations only

The following figure describe the method of distributing BB pools over C-plane pools in half
subrack configurations.

Figure 14: Half subrack configuration

The following figure describe the method of distributing BB pools over C-plane pools in full
subrack configurations.

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Figure 15: Full subrack configuration

C-plane SW deployments:
Two C-plane pools per half subrack
Three C-plane pools per full subrack

The C-plane pool supports:

250 to 300 events per pool in half rack ASIA

300 to 400 events per pool in full rack ASIA
425 to 510 events per pool in half rack ASIB/ASIL
510 to 680 events per pool in full rack ASIB/ASIL

Note:

For more information about C-plane pool deployment from previous releases, see the
Baseband Pooling document in Single RAN Operating Documentation.

C-plane pools and BB pools from SRAN 20B

With the LTE5582: Optimized C-Plane Pool per ASIA/ASIB feature activated, a new method
of distributing BB pools over C-plane pools is enabled.

From SRAN 21B, support for ASIL is also added.

The features introducing this support work only for ASIA/ASIB/ASIL + ABIA configuration.

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Figure 16: Half subrack configuration

Figure 17: Full subrack configuration

C-plane SW deployments:
Single C-plane pool per half subrack. Two C-plane pools are replaced by a single C-plane
pool.
Two C-plane pools per full subrack. No changes on the primary ASIA/ASIB and on the
secondary ASIA/ASIB. Two C-plane pools are replaced by a single C-plane pool.

The C-plane pool supports the following:

850 events per C-plane pool 1 in half rack ASIA

300 to 400 events per C-plane pool 1, 600 to 800 events per C-plane pool 2 in full rack
ASIA
850 to 1020 events per C-plane pool 1 in half rack ASIB/ASIL
510 to 680 events per C-plane pool 1, 1020 to 1360 events per C-plane pool 2 in full
rack ASIB/ASIL

C-plane pools and BB pools from SRAN 21A for ABIO/ABIN configurations only
C-plane SW deployments:
Each ABIO or ABIN has its own distributed C-plane pool on the BB card.

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The centralized C-plane is located in the primary ASIB

As a result, the C-plane capacity in terms of transactions per second for the BTS increases,
by adding new ABIN/ABIO boards. The capacity of the remaining centralized C-plane
components is sufficient to serve all distributed C-plane pools of the BTS.

The C-plane pool supports the following:

Maximum 550 events per distributed C-plane pool

Maximum 4208 events per centralized C-plane on ASIB (each distributed C-plane event
uses 1 centralized C-plane event)

C-plane pools and BB pools from SRAN 21B for ABIO/ABIN configurations only
C-plane SW deployments:
Each ABIN or ABIO has its own distributed C-plane pool on the BB card.
The centralized C-plane is located in the primary ASIB/ASIL.

Note:

ASIL is supported from SRAN 21B onward.

As a result, the C-plane capacity in terms of transactions per second for the BTS increases,
by adding new ABIN/ABIO boards. The capacity of the remaining centralized C-plane
components is sufficient to serve all distributed C-plane pools of the BTS.

The C-plane pool supports the following:

Maximum 700 events per distributed C-plane pool

Maximum 4208 events per centralized C-plane on ASIB/ASIL (each distributed C-plane
event uses 1 centralized C-plane event)

C-plane pools and capacity for ABIA configurations only

An ASIA/ASIB/ASIL contains up to two C-plane pools and all the cells are assigned to one of
the pools.

There are two different types of C-plane capacity:

Static C-plane capacity, represented by the number of RRC connected UEs, and equal to
the U-plane capacity in terms of connected UEs

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Dynamic C-plane capacity, represented by the number of events (such as call setup,
handover, and so on) per second, depending on the field situation:
With the LTE5582 feature disabled
250 to 300 events per pool in half rack ASIA
300 to 400 events per pool in full rack ASIA
425 to 510 events per pool in half rack ASIB/ASIL
510 to 680 events per pool in full rack ASIB/ASIL
With the LTE5582 feature enabled
500 to 600 events per C-plane pool 1 in half rack ASIA
300 to 400 events per C-plane pool 1, 600 to 800 events per C-plane pool 2 in full
rack for ASIA
850 to 1020 events per C-plane pool 1 in half rack ASIB/ASIL
510 to 680 events per C-plane pool 1, 1020 to 1360 events per C-plane pool 2 in
full rack for ASIB/ASIL

C-plane events at cell level and eNB level

The following figure shows C-plane events calculation methods at cell level.

Figure 18: C-plane events calculation methods at cell level

The following figure shows C-plane events calculation methods at cell level.

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Figure 19: C-plane events calculation method at eNB level

Note:

The C-plane capacity modeled by the key C-plane event frequency is only an
approximation, it isn't so comprehensive to capture the impact from every single C-
plane event (failure cases aren't included, for example). The key driver events and
their frequency are deployment and operator dependent, and traffic mixture varies
from market to market.

Note:

Paging events take place at eNB level and apply to all C-plane pools.
MEASUREMENT_DURATION represents the performance measurement (PM) interval
length and is typically 15 minutes. The sum of the Figure: C-plane events
calculation methods at cell level and Figure: C-plane events calculation method at
eNB level provides the number of events per second.
Performance counter measurements provide an average view for a 15-minute
window. Peak behavior is not captured.

C-plane additional events

As deployment increases, the C-plane capacity may be impacted by events related to:
LTE-M
NB-IoT
EN-DC

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Figure 20: Impact of events related to LTE-M on C-plane capacity

Figure 21: Impact of events related to NB-IoT on C-plane capacity

Figure 22: Impact of events related to EN-DC on C-plane capacity

Note:

Paging events take place at eNB level and apply to all C-plane pools.

C-plane pool allocation

Allocation of BB pools to C-plane pools is an internal eNB function that the operator cannot
control, with the following exceptions:

The load of the C-plane pools can be optimized in terms of the number of RRC connected
or active users and C-plane transactions per second.
The system can be tuned based on the operator needs. It is possible to allocate cells to
dedicated BB or C-plane pools, or both, for public safety users, or to allocate strategic
cells (for example, to provide radio coverage) to the most resilient BB and C-plane pools.

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If the cell allocation to BB pools is not optimized, or the BB pools with a higher number of
cells are mapped to the same C-plane pool, this may exceed the C-plane capacity. The
LTE1047: Control Plane Overload Handling feature works as a defense mechanism when the
C-plane overloads, to maintain product stability. Proactive features, including Access Class
Barring (ACB) (such as LTE1788: Automatic Access Class Barring, LTE1047: Control Plane
Overload Handling and LTE1047: Control Plane Overload Handling), should be deployed for
load management.

Note:

For more information, see the Baseband Pooling document in Single RAN Operating
Documentation.

C-plane pools and BB pools (mass event traffic)

Recommended actions in case of mass event traffic:
ACB features (such as LTE1788: Automatic Access Class Barring and LTE1047: Control
Plane Overload Handling) should be used to prevent overload.
If a high load or a mass event is expected, the traffic should be balanced between
available C-plane pools, so that no single C-plane pool carries too high of a traffic load.
This can be done by assigning cells to BB pools mapped to C-plane pools. The assignment
can be done either through priority allocation or manual allocation.​
The C-plane capacity can be increased through one of the following methods:
Balance the C-plane load via two ASIA/ASIB/ASIL full racks.
Activate the LTE5582: Optimized C-Plane Pool per ASIA/ASIB feature.
Use ASIB/ASIL instead of ASIA, which has 1.7 * ASIA C-plane capacity.

3.1.7 Donut cell

Information on number of donut cells supported per BB pool

Donut cells works only for FDD in AirScale with ABIA.

When the LNBTS Activate baseband pooling (actBbPooling) parameter value is

true, a maximum number of 3 donut cells are supported per BB pool, regardless of their
bandwidth, in any antenna configurations up to 4 antennas.

When the LNBTS Activate baseband pooling (actBbPooling) parameter value is

false, a maximum number of 2 donut cells are supported per BB pool (half ABIA),

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regardless of their bandwidth, in any antenna configurations up to 4 antennas.

Donut cells cannot be mixed with non-dount cell in the same BB-pool.

3.1.8 eNB traffic models

Types of supported eNB traffic models

3.1.8.1 AirScale traffic model

The number of control plane (C-plane) events per second supported by AirScale

Table 61: Traffic model for ASIB/ASIL + ABIN/ABIO configuration

C-plane event Number of events per second

UE state transitions 302

bearer / addition / release 4

handovers 51

timing advance (TA) updates 15

paging at S1 178

attach / detach 6

carrier aggregation (CA) congure / decongure 115

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Table 62: Traffic model for ASIB/ASIL + 3 ABIN/ABIO configuration

C-plane event Number of events per second

UE state transitions 903

bearer / addition / release 12

handovers 153

TA updates 45

paging at S1 534

attach /detach 18

CA congure / decongure 345

Table 63: Traffic model for ASIB/ASIL + 6 ABIO/ABIN configuration

C-plane event Number of events per second

UE state transitions 1810

bearer / addition / release 23

handovers 305

TA updates 92

paging at S1 1069

attach / detach 38

CA congure / decongure 687

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Table 64: Traffic model for 1x ASIA configuration

C-plane event Number of events per second

UE state transitions 365

bearer / addition / release 5

handovers 61

TA updates 18

paging at S1 216

attach / detach 7

CA congure / decongure 140

Note:

Table: Traffic model for 1x ASIA configuration presents the capacity for one ASIA. A
full rack capacity is two times that of a half rack, while the ASIB/ASIL capacity is 1.7
times that of ASIA.

A conventional ASIA deployment contains twice as many C-plane pools, each rated at 300
events per second. Table: Traffic model for 1x ASIA configuration presents the traffic
intensity beyond the rated capacity set to accommodate instantaneous traffic variation.

3.1.8.2 Flexi Multiradio 10 eNB traffic model

The amount of C-plane events per sec supported by Flexi Multiradio 10

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Table 65: Flexi Multiradio 10 eNB Traffic model

C-plane event Number of events per second

Ue State Transitions 88.6

Bearer Addition/Release 6.6

Handovers 31.7

TA Updates 37.9

Paging at S1 44.3

Attach/Detach 0.2

eNB C-plane capacity is measured by call processing event per sec

Flexi Multiradio 10 supports up to 200 C-plane events per sec as defined by above traffic
model
FSMF + FBBx supports up to 400 C-plane events
FSMF + 2 x FBBx supports up to 600 C-plane events

3.2 WCDMA baseband dimensioning in SBTS

Flexi 10 BTS System Module and AirScale Indoor System Module baseband dimensioning

3.2.1 Fundamentals of Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS baseband

dimensioning
Number of subunits available in Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS system module. Impact of
different factors on FSMF baseband capacity.

Baseband capacity
Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS provides up to 18 cell capacity with two-way RX Div in single FSMF
and nine cell capacity with four-way RX Div. The output power options are 8/ 15/ 20/ 30/
40/ 60 W or 80 W, depending on the RF module.

Baseband capacity is represented by subunits. One subunit in an FSMF has a capacity of 96

channel elements (CEs) from Release 99 (Rel.99). The FSMF has 5.5 subunits. In case the
FSMF is shared between technologies (WCDMA and GSM on one system module), the number

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of available subunits is 3.5.

Figure 23: FSMF capacity for WCDMA

FBBA/C has six subunits.

Subunits are used for processing:

Common Control Channel
Rel.99 traffic
HSDPA cells, users, and throughput
HSUPA users and throughput

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Table 66: Number of subunits available for WCDMA in FSMF and FBBA/C extension baseband
cards

FSMF FBBA/C FBBA/C Number of subunits

available for WCDMA

WCDMA - - 5.5

WCDMA WCDMA - 11.5

WCDMA WCDMA WCDMA 17.5

WCDMA/GSM - - 3.5

WCDMA/GSM WCDMA - 9.5

WCDMA/GSM WCDMA WCDMA 15.5

WCDMA LTE LTE 5.5

WCDMA LTE WCDMA 11.5

WCDMA/GSM LTE LTE 3.5

WCDMA/GSM LTE WCDMA 9.5

LTE/GSM LTE WCDMA 5.5

Flexi 10 BTS System Module available capacity

The Flexi 10 BTS system module capacity can be extended with up to two extension
baseband cards (FBBA/C), which are optional. FSMF and with up to two FBBA/C extension
baseband cards are one pool of common baseband resources for traffic processing, unless
local cell grouping is used. In the last case, each local cell group (LCG) is a pool of baseband
resources for traffic processing from LCG cells.

Table 67: Number of subunits available in Flexi 10 BTS system module

Flexi 10 BTS system module Extension baseband cards Number of subunits

FSMF - 5.5

FSMF FBBA 11.5

FSMF FBBA + FBBA 17.5

The system module baseband capacity available for traffic may be further impacted by the

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following:
Additional CCCH resources
Local cell group HSPA settings
HSDPA subunits
Number of activated interference cancellation units (PIC pools)
Number of local cell groups with the RAN3374: Narrowband Interference Cancellation
(NBIC) feature activated
Number of local cell groups with at least one cell that has either SR002014: SRAN
Dynamic Spectrum Sharing GSM+WCDMA feature or SR002167: Dynamic Spectrum
Sharing WCDMA+LTE feature activated
Static HSUPA allocation
Static high-speed forward access channel (HS-FACH) allocation

Note:

For more information about dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS), see the following
documents:
Operating Documentation/Single RAN Features/GSM-WCDMA Dynamic Spectrum
Sharing Features
Operating Documentation/Single RAN Features/WCDMA-LTE Dynamic Spectrum
Sharing Features
Operating Documentation/5G Features/LTE-NR Dynamic Spectrum Sharing Features

The available baseband capacity (subunits) for traffic usage after the activation of HSDPA,
PIC, NBIC and DSS after the allocation of static HSUPA, or additional CCCH resources can be
calculated using the formula below:
Figure 24: Number of available subunits

where:

Number_of_available_subunits subunits initially available for user traffic in the system module. The
number is based on Table: Number of subunits available for WCDMA
in FSMF and FBBA/C extension baseband cards and Table: Number of
subunits available in Flexi 10 BTS system module

subunits_for_PIC_pool number of commissioned interference cancellation subunits

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subunits_for_NBIC number of subunits for NBIC

subunits_for_DSS number of subunits for DSS

subunits_for_static_HSUPA number of HSUPA static commissioned subunits

subunits_for_additional_CCCH number of subunits allocated for additional CCCH processing (CCCH

pools)

subunits_for_HS_FACH number of subunits statically allocated for HS-FACH users

Note:

The SBTS does not have installed physical LKs. Instead, these are handled by the
Operations Support System (OSS).

Available subunits (pure traffic subunits) can be used for Rel.99 dedicated channel (DCH)
users, HSDPA users (Associated DCH (A-DCH)/signaling radio bearer(SRB)), and HSUPA users
(HSUPA scheduler).

Figure 25: Example presenting an FSMF, one normal HSPA LCG, 12 HSPA cells and one
interference cancelation unit

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Table 68: Number of subunits available per SBTS with one FSMF with single LCG

HSPA settings per FSMF FSMF + FBBA FSMF + 2xFBBA

LCG

Rel.99 only 5.5 11.5 17.5

Small HSPA 4.875 10.875 16.875

Normal HSPA 4.375 10.375 16.375

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Table 69: Number of HSDPA subunits required for the second and every next LCG

HSPA settings per LCG HSDPA subunits

Rel.99 only 0 subunit

Small HSPA 0.625 subunit

Normal HSPA 1.125 subunit

Note:

0.5 subunit must be added to the presented figures for CCCH processing. Each LCG
requires CCCH resources.

Rel.99 CE system module capacity

The available baseband capacity referred to in Rel.99 CEs after the activation of HSDPA and
PIC, and after the allocation of static HSUPA or the additional CCCH resources, can be
calculated using the formula below:
Figure 26: System Module Rel.99 CE capacity

where:

#commissioned_Rel.99_CEs number of available Rel.99 CE licenses

Rel.99_CE_subunit_capacity Rel.99 CE subunit capacity

number_of_available_subunits subunits available after activation of HSDPA, PIC, NBIC, and after
allocation of static HSUPA or additional CCCH resources. The value is
based on Table: Number of subunits available per SBTS with one
FSMF with single LCG and Table: Number of HSDPA subunits required
for the second and every next LCG

As far as Rel.99 CE capacity is concerned, the FSMF subunit has 96 Rel.99 CEs.

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3.2.2 Fundamentals of Nokia AirScale BTS baseband

dimensioning
Capacity obtained due to different Nokia AirScale system module hardware configuration

AirScale system module baseband capacity

A single Nokia AirScale BTS supports up to 24 cells with two-way RX Diversity (Div) and 12
with four-way RX Div.

The available AirScale Indoor System Module WCDMA baseband resources can be split into
independent baseband (BB) pools called local cell groups (LCG).

The LCG is a pool of baseband resources dedicated for traffic and Common Control
Channels (CCCH) processing from the respective cells. The WNCELG Access Baseband
Capacity (accessBbCapacity) parameter is used to define the LCG baseband capacity.
The available system module baseband capacity can be split into a number of LCGs.

Each LCG supports up to 12 two-way RX Div cells and six four-way RX Div. Up to four LCGs
can be created during SBTS commissioning. Another LCG is created when the number of
cells is higher than 12, or more HSPA schedulers are needed (each LCG has its own HSUPA
and HSDPA schedulers). More than one LCG is used in the Multi-Operator RAN (MORAN) case.

With the SRAN 18 SP release, the Nokia AirScale BTS can use one ASIA card and up to three
ABIA cards. With the introduction of the SR001621: SRAN cell sets allocation on full AirScale
module feature in the SRAN 17A maintenance package, the Nokia AirScale BTS supports two
ASIA cards and up to six ABIA cards a single SBTS. WCDMA does not support baseband
pooling between the half subracks since the baseband resources are not shared between
cores.

In case WCDMA related RF units are connected to two ABIAs (for example, when the
SR002075: Support for Configuration with WCDMA Radio Modules Connected to Two ABIAs
feature is used) within one half-subrack of an AirScale system module, there is a limitation
on the number of WCDMA cells configured in the RF units connected to these two ABIAs.
There can be up to 16 (two-way RX Div) WCDMA cells configured on each RF unit (with
WCDMA cells) connected to those two ABIAs. Still, a maximum of 24 WCDMA cells (two-way
RX Div) is supported for whole SBTS.

The WCDMA baseband capacity is represented by subunits. Each ABIA card provides a
capacity of eight subunits.

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Table 70: WCDMA capacity correspondence with AirScale Indoor System Module HW
configuration

HW conguration WCDMA capacity

1 x ASIA + 1 x ABIA 8 subunits

1 x ASIA + 2 x ABIA 16 subunits

1 x ASIA + 3 x ABIA 24 subunits

2 x ASIA + 4 x ABIA 32 subunits

2 x ASIA + 5 x ABIA 40 subunits

2 x ASIA + 6 x ABIA 48 subunits

Subunits are used for processing:

Common Control Channel (CCCH)
Release 99 (Rel.99) traffic
HSDPA cells, users, and throughput
HSUPA cells, users, and throughput
Interference cancelation (parallel interference cancelation (PIC) pool allocation)

The LCG baseband capacity is configured during the SBTS commissioning. The smallest LCG
size is of four subunits (half ABIA card), while the maximum size is 24 subunits (three ABIA
cards), located in the same half subrack. The LCG baseband capacity is configurable with two
subunits per step.

Each LCG has statically allocated baseband resources, while the remaining part is used for
dynamic traffic allocation (Rel.99, high-speed uplink packet access (HSUPA) users, and
HSUPA throughput).

The LCG baseband capacity available for traffic can be further impacted by the following:
Additional CCCH resources
High-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) scheduler resources
The number of activated interference cancellation units (PIC pools)
The number of local cell groups with the RAN3374: Narrowband Interference Cancellation
feature activated
The number of local cell groups with at least one cell that has either SR002014: SRAN
Dynamic Spectrum Sharing GSM+WCDMA feature or SR002167: Dynamic Spectrum
Sharing WCDMA+LTE feature activated
Static HSUPA allocation
Static HS-FACH uplink allocation

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Note:

For more information about dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS), see the following
documents:
Operating Documentation/Single RAN Features/GSM-WCDMA Dynamic Spectrum
Sharing Features
Operating Documentation/Single RAN Features/WCDMA-LTE Dynamic Spectrum
Sharing Features
Operating Documentation/5G Features/LTE-NR Dynamic Spectrum Sharing Features

The static baseband allocation is done during the system module startup. The remaining
subunits after the static BB allocation (pure traffic subunits) can be used for Rel.99 DCH
users, HSDPA users associated dedicated channel (A-DCH)/signaling radio bearer (SRB), and
HSUPA users and throughput.

There are two HSDPA scheduler allocation scenarios that depend on the LCG baseband
capacity variant:
LCG with baseband capacity of four subunits
LCG with baseband capacity of more than four subunits (for instance, six subunits, or
eight subunits, or ten subunits, and so on)

The LCG with four subunits baseband capacity requires 1,125 subunits for the HSDPA
scheduler, allowing the activation of one HSDPA scheduler.

The LCG that has more than four subunits baseband capacity requires 1,625 subunits for
the HSDPA scheduler, allowing the activation of up to three HSDPA schedulers.

Baseband resources allocated for the HSDPA schedulers can also be used for the CCCH
processing. This means that for the basic cell configurations, there is no need to allocate any
additional baseband resources for the CCCH processing.

The Table: Examples of WCDMA capacity allocation subunits (1x LCG scenario) presents
examples of WCDMA AirScale system module capacity allocation and the maximum number
of HSPA or R99 users determined by the available BB capacity and single LCG HSPA users
capacity.

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Table 71: HSDPA scheduler allocation scenarios

LCG baseband Maximum HSDPA Number of CCCH pool

capacity number of cells scheduler HSDPA available with
per LCG baseband schedulers HSDPA
resources baseband
resources

4 subunits Up to 12 cells (up 1,125 subunits 1 2 CCCH pools

to 6 HSPA cells)

More than 4 Up to 12 cells 1,625 subunits 1 or 2 or 3 3 CCCH pools

subunits (Rel.99 or HSPA
cells)

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Table 72: Examples of WCDMA capacity allocation subunits (1x LCG scenario)

WCDMA available Baseband Maximum Maximum Maximum

capacity capacity for pure amount of amount of amount of Rel.99
traffic use HSUPA users (F- HSUPA users CE
DPCH) (non-F-DPCH)

4 subunits (0,5 x 2,875 subunits 220 154 276

ABIA)

6 subunits (0,75 x 4,375 subunits 340 238 420

ABIA)

8 subunits (1 x 6,375 subunits 500 350 612

ABIA)

10 subunits (1,25 8,375 subunits 620 462 804

x ABIA)

12 subunits (1,5 x 10,375 subunits 620 574 996

ABIA)

14 subunits (1,75 12,375 subunits 620 620 1188

x ABIA)

16 subunits (2 x 14,375 subunits 620 620 1380

ABIA)

18subunits (2,25 x 16,375 subunits 620 620 1572

ABIA)

20 subunits (2,5 x 18,375 subunits 620 620 1764

ABIA)

22 subunits (2,75 20,375 subunits 620 620 1956

x ABIA)

24 subunits (3 x 22,375 subunits 620 620 2148

ABIA)

Note:

Regarding the LCG baseband capacity, the table above presents one LCG case
allowing a maximum reach of 620 HSPA users. To achieve more than 620 HSPA users
per SBTS, another LCG must be created.

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3.2.2.1 Balancing RACH load between LCGs configured on

the same SBTS
Instructions to prevent digital signal processor (DSP) crashes leading to site unavailability
due to an unbalanced random access channel (RACH) load between the LCGs configured
on the same SBTS

Purpose
An unbalanced random access channel (RACH) load between the LCGs configured on the
same SBTS may lead to digital signal processor crashes, leading further to site unavailability.
To reduce the unavailability risks in such scenario, Nokia recommends to perform the
following LCG RACH load dimensioning procedure.

Procedure
1 Collect the following counters from LCGs configured on the same SBTS, for last
seven days:

M5000C456 NUMBER OF SUCCESSFULLY ACKNOWLEDGED R99 RACH

PREAMBLES
M5000C457 NUMBER OF NEGATIVELY ACKNOWLEDGED R99 RACH PREAMBLES

2 Calculate the following values:

Average_SUM_M5000C457 as sum of the M5000C457 counter hourly values,

averaged for over 7 days.
Average_SUM_M5000C456 as sum of the M5000C456 counter hourly values,
averaged for over 7 days.

3 Compare the calculated values and proceed as follows:

Select from the available options

If Average_SUM_M5000C457 < 0.1 * Average_SUM_M5000C456 proceed to next
step.
If Average_SUM_M5000C457 >= 0.1 * Average_SUM_M5000C456 then you must
check the RACH Preamble Decoding failures before considering the re-dimensioning
described in this procedure.

4 Calculate the following values:

Average_SUM_M5000C456_all_LCG1_cells as sum of the M5000C456 counter

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hourly values for all cells mapped to LCG1, averaged for over 7 days.
Average_SUM_M5000C456_all_LCG2_cells as sum of the M5000C456 counter
hourly values for all cells mapped to LCG2, averaged for over 7 days.

5 Compare the calculated values, and, if any of the following conditions is met, proceed
to next step.

Average_SUM_M5000C456_all_LCG1_cells >= 4 *
Average_SUM_M5000C456_all_LCG2_cells
Average_SUM_M5000C456_all_LCG2_cells >= 4 *
Average_SUM_M5000C456_all_LCG1_cells

6 Re-dimension the LCGs by redistributing the WCELLs between LCGs.

Select from the available options

Move a subset of cells from high RACH load LCG to the lower RACH load LCG.
Create a new LCG using WebEM Commissioning Wizard and move a subset of cells
from high RACH load LCG to the newly created LCG.

Result
RACH load is redistributed to avoid uneven loading.

3.2.3 Common Control Channels dimensioning

Common Control Channels (CCCH) resources in FSMF and AirScale Indoor System Module.
The formula to calculate required RHE per cell.

General information
The following downlink (DL) Common Control Channels are supported per cell in the SBTS:
1 x Primary – Synchronization Channel (P-SCH)
1 x Secondary – Synchronization Channel (S-SCH)
1 x Primary – Common Control Physical Channel (P-CCPCH)
1 x Primary – Common Pilot Channel (P-CPICH)
1 x Paging Indicator Channel (PICH)
1 x Acquisition Indicator Channel (AICH)
3 x Secondary Common Control Physical Channel (S-SCCPCH)

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In the uplink (UL), resources for processing the Random Access Channel (RACH) preamble
signatures are required per cell. RACH preamble signatures are used for both RACH users
and High Speed forward access channel (HS CELL_FACH) users.

The extended cell

Cells with ranges higher than 20 km are called extended cells. The basic principles for
extended cells in the SBTS are as follows:

CCCH pool and CCCH PS licence key (LK) dimensioning rules are the same as in the case
of non-extended cell range.
One or several cells in the SBTS (supported configurations) can be configured as
extended cells.
An extended cell is tested up to 240 km.

CCCH dimensioning details

The CCCH baseband resources for signature processing of RACH preambles, for RACH and
HS CELL_FACH users, are called CCCH pools. One CCCH pool has a capacity of 480 RACH
Handler Elements (RHE).

A certain number of CCCH pools is required, depending on:

Cell range
Number of signatures for RACH preambles
RX diversity
Number of cells in the local cell group

CCCH resources in FSMF

An FSMF HW capacity contains one CCCH pool (480 RACH Handler Element (RHE). The FSMF
HSDPA scheduler baseband resources (HSDPA subunits) include CCCH pools for additional
CCCH processing.

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Table 73: Number of CCCH pools and RHE capacity in the FSMF HSDPA scheduler subunits

LCG HSPA #HSDPA #HSUPA HSDPA #CCCH pools #RHE in

conguration schedulers schedulers subunits in HSDPA HSDPA
subunits subunits

Rel.99 only 0 0 0 0 0

Small HSPA 1 1 0.625 1 480

Normal HSPA 2 1 1.125 2 960

If additional HSDPA subunits are allocated, they contain CCCH resources that can be used
for CCCH processing.

Whenever it is required from the CCCH point of view, CCCH pools from high-speed downlink
packet access (HSDPA) subunits are used for CCCH processing.

Whenever it is required from the CCCH point of view, and CCCH pools from HSDPA subunits
are not sufficient, additional CCCH pools on top of HSDPA subunits are allocated.

One commissioned CCCH processing set enables one CCCH pool included in the HSDPA
subunits. Each commissioned CCCH processing set requires one processing set license key
(CCCH PS LK), which is handled by the operating support system (OSS).

One additional CCCH pool consumes 0.5 subunit.

Every local cell group (LCG) that has Narrowband Interference Cancellation (NBIC) activated,
gets one additional CCCH pool. This additional CCCH pool from NBIC resources is enabled
for use with one CCCH PS LK.

Every LCG that has dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) activated, gets two additional CCCH
pools, on top of NBIC. Those additional CCCH pools from DSS resources are enabled for use
with two CCCH PS LKs.

A four-subunit AirScale system module LCG gets two additional CCCH pools but one subunit
is needed for the NBIC allocation. In such case, these additional CCCH pools from NBIC
resources require two CCCH PS LKs to be used for CCCH processing.

Note:

For more information about Dynamic Spectrum Sharing, see Dynamic spectrum
sharing.

Every system module in the SBTS configuration has one CCCH PS (480 RHE) included in the
HW price, which does not require any license. One CCCH processing set is available by

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default per each AirScale system module and does not require any configuration.

Each LCG in the AirScale system module contains CCCH baseband processing resources
(named CCCH pools) included in the HSDPA scheduler baseband capacity.

The AirScale Indoor System Module LCG has a number of two or three CCCH pools included
in the HSDPA subunits.

Additional CCCH pools (on top of the CCCH pools from the HSDPA scheduler baseband
resources) are allocated when needed.

Additional CCCH pools or CCCH pools from the HSDPA scheduler baseband resources are
enabled when they are licensed with CCCH PS LK.

A single pool of CCCH provides a capacity of 48 RACH resources, which are common for all
assigned cells. One RACH resource is used to process one RACH message during 10 ms
physical random access channel (PRACH) radio frame.

In case of 20 ms RACH transmission time interval (TTI), one RACH message consumes two
RACH resources.

Table 74: LCG dimensioning

LCG baseband Maximum number of CCCH pool available RHE

capacity cells per LCG with HSDPA
baseband resources

4 subunits Up to 12 cells 2 CCCH pools 960

(maximum 6 HSPA
cells)

More than 4 subunits Up to 12 cells (R99 or 3 CCCH pools 1440

HSPA cells)

Common features for Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS and Nokia AirScale BTS
The CCCH resources are LCG specific. Each LCG must have CCCH resources (CCCH pools) for
cells that are mapped to a particular LCG.

The RHE is a resource of a CCCH pool that is used for processing the RACH channel of a cell
within an LCG.

The required RHE per cell in an LCG is calculated with the following formula:

#RHE_per_cell = CellRange * #Signatures * RxDiv

where:

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#RHE_per_cell – number of required RACH Handler Elements per single cell (max 480)
CellRange – cell range, referred to in kilometers, rounded up to a whole integer divisible
by five
#Signatures – number of signatures for RACH preambles
RXDiv – RX Diversity. Takes a value of two for two-way RX Div or four in case of four-way
RX Div

One CCCH pool supports the following number of cells (four RACH signatures per cell are
assumed):
3 cells/20 km two-way RX Div
(#RHE_per_cell=20 * 4 * 2 = 160 RHE; 3 cells require 3 * 160 RHE = 480 RHE)
6 cells/10 km two-way RX Div
(#RHE_per_cell = 10 * 4 * 2 = 80 RHE; 6 cells require 6 * 80 RHE = 480 RHE)
3 cells/10 km four-way RX Div
(#RHE_per_cell = 10 * 4 * 4 = 160 RHE; 3 cells require 3 * 160 RHE = 480 RHE

Other numbers of cells per CCCH pool are also supported.

The following is a list of basic configurations that are served with one CCCH pool included in
the system modules HW capacity, and do not require any additional resources for CCCH
processing:
1 x System Module: 3 cells/20 km two-way RX Div
1 x System Module: 6 cells/10 km two-way RX Div

Whenever the CCCH resources included in the HSDPA subunits are not enough, additional
CCCH resources are allocated with granularity of 0,5 subunit (one CCCH pool). In Nokia
AirScale BTS, baseband subunits are grouped by two. Only one CCCH pool can be allocated
per group (two subunits). Each Paging Indicator Channel (PIC) activation excludes additional
CCCH processing resources allocated in the grouped subunit. Only one PIC pool can be
associated per baseband subunits group.

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Figure 27: Six subunits Digital Signal Processor (DSP) group

To activate the CCCH pools, the proper amount of CCCH processing sets must be
configured. One CCCH processing set is available by default per each AirScale system
module and does not require any configurations.

CCCH resource allocation

The CCCH resources are LCG specific. Each LCG must have CCCH resources (CCCH pools) for
the cells that are mapped to a particular LCG.

The CCCH resources included in the SBTS HW are not connected to a particular system
module. In case of an SBTS with one system module and multiple LCGs, the CCCH resources
included in the HW capacity are assigned to LCG1. LCG2, LCG3, and LCG4 require at least
one CCCH pool.

In case of a dual-core AirScale, the WNCELG System Module Distinguished Name

(smodDN) parameter identifies the half subrack where the HW resources are allocated for
the LCG.

LCG baseband capacity is defined with the WNCELG Access Baseband Capacity
(accessBbCapacity) parameter. The sum of accessBbCapacity that points to the
same smodDN must be 100.

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Example of BB capacity distribution in LCGs

Primary core:

LCG1 - accessBbCapacity = 40%

LCG2 - accessBbCapacity = 60%
Sum = 100%

Secondary core:

LCG3 - accessBbCapacity = 100%

Sum = 100%

Required CCCH resources for basic configurations

The number of signatures for RACH preambles is defined with the RNC/WBTS/WCEL RACH
and HS-RACH Preamble Signatures(RACHPreambleSignatures) parameter. It
specifies the number of signatures used for RACH users and HS CELL_FACH users
(RAN1913: High Speed Cell_FACH). The FSMF summarizes the required number of subunits
and CCCH license keys (FSMF) for some of the cell configurations.

Table 75: Normal HSPA LCG configurations

CellRange 5 10 15 20 5 10 15 20

Cells Signatures / 2 2 2 2 4 4 4 4
RX Div

3 4 -\- -\- -\- -\- -\- -\- 1\- 2\-

6 4 -\- -\- 1\- 1\- -\- 1\- 2\- 5\1

9 4 -\- 1\- 2\- 2\- 1\- 2\- 4\1 8\2.5

12 4 -\- 1\- 2\- 3\0.5 1\- 3\0.5 5\1.5 11\4

3 8 -\- -\- 1\- 2\- -\- 2\- 2\0 N/A

6 8 -\- 1\- 2\- 5\1 1\- 5\1 5\1.5 N/A

9 8 1\- 2\- 4\1 8\2.5 2\- 8\2.5 8\3 N/A

12 8 1\- 3\0.5 5\1.5 11\4 3\0.5 11\4 11\4.5 N/A

The table above presents the number of CCCH processing set LKs divided by the number of

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additional subunits required for CCCH processing, versus the number of cells, cell range
(km), RX Div mode and number of RACH preamble signatures in the FSMF normal HSPA LCG.

Small HSPA local cell group

Table 76: Small HSPA LCG configurations

CellRange 5 10 15 20 5 10 15 20

Cells Signatures / 2 2 2 2 4 4 4 4
RX Div

3 4 -\- -\- -\- -\- -\- -\- 1\- 2\-

6 4 -\- -\- 1\- 1\- -\- 1\- 2\0.5 5\1.5

3 8 -\- -\- 1\- 2\- -\- 2\- 2\0.5 N/A

6 8 -\- 1\- 2\0.5 5\1.5 1\- 5\1.5 5\2 N/A

The table above presents the number of CCCH processing set LKs divided by the number of
additional subunits required for CCCH processing, versus the number of cells, cell range
(km), RX Div mode and number of RACH preamble signatures in FSMF small HSPA LCG.

Note:

One CCCH PS LK per FSMF is included in the HW price, which is shown in Table: Small
HSPA LCG configurations. One CCCH PS LK and 0.5 subunit must be added to the
presented figures in case of LCG2, LCG3, and LCG4 in FSMF. In case of LCG1, the
number of CCCH PS LKs and the number of additional required subunits are directly
applicable.

3.2.4 Dedicated channel (DCH) dimensioning

The amount of baseband resources required per one R99 traffic. Allocating UL and DL
with different bit rates.

For baseband dimensioning purposes, a certain number of Release 99 channel elements

(Rel.99 CE) per active DCH user is required. Baseband resources are required per DCH active
user in no handover state, and per DCH user in soft handover state. Additional baseband
resources are not required for users in softer handover state or in compressed mode.

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The number of Rel.99 CE depends on the radio access bearer (RAB) data rate and minimum
spreading factor (SF). The table Baseband resources required per one Rel.99 traffic channel
presents the required number of R99 CE per each active connection for a basic set of RABs.

The RAN3372: High Rate HD Voice feature extends the support of adaptive multi-rate (AMR)
codecs with wideband adaptive multi-rate (WB-AMR) codec 23.85 kbps. WB-AMR provides
significantly superior voice quality. As the resource required to support higher rate codecs is
higher as well, these higher rates are used when there are enough resources. The following
table also provides details on the required resources for WB-AMR.

Table 77: Baseband resources required per one Rel.99 traffic channel

RAB Traffic class CS Max Min SF Min SF Required Required

/PS Rates UL DL Rel.99 CE Rel.99 CE
for each per per
RAB, connection connection
kbps UL DL

AMR Conversational CS 1.2 64 128 1 1

Speech

AMR Conversational CS 7.95 64 128 1 1

Speech

AMR Conversational CS 5.9 64 128 1 1

Speech

AMR Conversational CS 4.75 64 128 1 1

Speech

AMR Conversational CS 23.85 32 64 2 1

Speech

AMR Conversational CS 12.65 64 128 1 1

Speech

AMR Conversational CS 8.85 64 128 1 1

Speech

AMR Conversational CS 6.65 64 128 1 1

Speech

Packet Interactive/ PS 16 64 128 1 1

Background

Packet Interactive/ PS 32 32 64 2 2
Background

Packet Interactive/ PS 64 16 32 4 4
Background

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RAB Traffic class CS Max Min SF Min SF Required Required

/PS Rates UL DL Rel.99 CE Rel.99 CE
for each per per
RAB, connection connection
kbps UL DL

Packet Interactive/ PS 128 8 16 4 4

Background

Packet Interactive/ PS 256 4 8 6 6

Background

Packet Interactive/ PS 384 4 8 8 8

Background

UDI Conversational CS 64 16 32 4 4

Streamin Streaming CS 57.6 16 32 4 4

g

Streamin Streaming CS 14.4 64 128 1 1

g

Asymmetric UL/DL Rel.99 CE allocation

Asymmetric UL/DL allocation means that the UL and DL directions have different bit rate
requirements. The rule for allocating resources for asymmetric bit rates is based on a higher
data rate requirement, but Rel.99 CE reservations are done separately for UL/DL. For
example, if the UL bearer is 64 kbps and the DL bearer is 384 kbps, the Rel.99 CE
reservation is four R99 CE in UL and eight Rel.99 CE in DL.

UL and DL resources must be allocated inside one subunit, but there is no direct connection
between UL and DL resource allocation. In other words, UL and DL resources do not need to
be allocated symmetrically across subunit UL and DL capacity.

3.2.5 HSDPA dimensioning

Features supported by the high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) scheduler. The
number of supported users based on the enabled capacity license. Impact of the RNC-
specific Frame timing offset of a cell(Tcell) parameter on dual-band (DB) and
dual-cell (DC)-HSDPA features.

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HSDPA scheduler
The HSDPA scheduler provides high throughput capability. From the baseband perspective,
achievable HSDPA throughput further depends on the activated features (for example,
RAN1906: Dual-Cell HSDPA 42Mbps, RAN2179: Dual Band HSDPA 42Mbps) and HSDPA
throughput commissioning.

The HSDPA scheduler provides a high number of user capability. The achievable number of
active HSDPA users further depends on the activated features (RAN2124: HSPA 128 Users
Per Cell, RAN2869: HSPA Subscriber Increase).

The HSDPA scheduler does not consume any Release 99 channel elements (Rel.99 CE)
license keys (LKs).

The HSDPA scheduler supports 64 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), DC-HSDPA, and
DB-HSDPA features.

The number of supported users per cell, depending on the enabled capacity license, is as
follows:
Up to 208 users per cell (RAN2869: HSPA Subscriber Increase)
Up to 180 users per cell (RAN3179: HSDPA HS-FACH Enhanced Queuing)
Up to 128 users per cell (RAN2124: HSPA 128 Users per Cell)
Up to 72 users per cell (RAN1686: HSPA 72 Users per Cell)

HSDPA and DC/DB-HSDPA users (RAN3067: Flexible HSDPA Carriers Allocation: Carrier
Aggregation (CA) DC/DB-HSDPA) as well as High Speed forward access channel (HS
CELL_FACH) DL users are included in the per-cell limits listed above.

A single HSDPA scheduler supports up to six cells.

The HSDPA scheduler for features are as follows:

The HSDPA scheduler is LCG specific. It supports cells only from its own LCG.
Up to three schedulers per LCG are supported when the LCG has more than four subunits
of baseband capacity. An LCG that has only four subunits supports one HSDPA scheduler
and therefore up to six HSPA cells.
Enhanced Virtual Antenna Mapping ((E-)VAM) (RAN2482: Enhanced Virtual Antenna
Mapping) cells require more HSDPA subunits compared to non-(E-)VAM cells.
VAM cells and E-VAM cells require the same amount of baseband resources from the
HSDPA scheduler point of view.
Non-(E-)VAM and (E-)VAM cells require the same amount of baseband resources from the
HSDPA scheduler point of view.

The scheduler contains CCCH resources (CCCH pools) that may be used for CCCH processing

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when those are enabled with a CCCH PS LK.

Table 78: Required HSDPA subunits for HSDPA schedulers versus LCG configurations (Flexi
Multiradio 10 BTS)

LCG HSPA Number of HSDPA Maximum number of HSDPA subunits

conguration schedulers supported HSDPA
cells

R99 Only 0 0 0

Small HSPA 1 6 0.625

Normal HSPA 2 12 1.125

The table below presents the required baseband resources for HSDPA schedulers per LCG
HSPA configuration. Assumptions: non-(E-)VAM cells, 10 km cell range, two-way RX Div and
the RNC-specific RACH and HS-RACH Preamble Signatures
(RACHPreambleSignatures) parameter value is 4.

Table 79: Required HSDPA subunits for HSDPA schedulers per LCG versus LCG HSPA
configuration (Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS)

LCG HSPA conguration 1st LCG: HSDPA 2nd and next LCG: HSDPA
subunits/additional CCCH subunits1) / additional CCCH
pools pools2)

Small 0.625/1 0.625/1

Normal 1.125/2 1.125/2

1)
Additional 0.5 subunit (one CCCH pool/480 RHE) for CCCH processing must be added to
the presented figures in the second and following local cell groups (LCGs).

2)
If needed, CCCH pools can be used when CCCH PS LKs are available.

Table: Required HSDPA subunits for HSDPA schedulers per LCG versus LCG HSPA
configuration and number of cells (Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS) presents the required baseband
resources for HSDPA schedulers per LCG for a typical number of cells and for available LCG
HSPA configurations. Assumptions: (E-)VAM cells, 10 km cell range, two-way RX Div and the
RNC-specific RACH and HS-RACH Preamble Signatures
(RACHPreambleSignatures) parameter value is 4.

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Table 80: Required HSDPA subunits for HSDPA schedulers per LCG versus LCG HSPA
configuration and number of cells (Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS)

LCG HSPA Maximum number of 1st LCG: HSDPA 2nd and next LCG:
conguration supported HSPA cells subunits/additional HSDPA subunits1) /
per LCG CCCH pools additional CCCH
pools2)

Small Up to 4 0.625/1 0.625/1

Small 5-6 1.125/2 1.125/2

Normal Up to 6 1.125/2 1.125/2

Normal 7–8 1.625/3 1.625/3

Normal 9 – 10 2.125/4 2.125/4

Normal 11 - 12 2.625/5 2.625/5

1)
Additional 0.5 subunit for CCCH (one CCCH pool/480 RHE) processing needs to be added
to the presented figures in the second and following LCGs.

2)
If needed, CCCH pools can be used when CCCH PS LKs are available.

Note:

The FSMF supports up to 18 cells.

HSDPA users
One HSDPA scheduler has 240 scheduling units. The resources are used as follows:
One HSDPA user or one DB/DC-HSDPA user consumes one scheduling unit from the
scheduler.
One HSDPA user in High Speed CELL_FACH state consumes one scheduling unit from the
scheduler.
RAN3067: Flexible HSDPA Carriers Allocation: One CA DB/DC-HSDPA user consumes:
one scheduling unit from the scheduler handling the primary carrier of that user
0.5 scheduling unit from the scheduler handling the secondary carrier of that user
Which in total gives 1.5 scheduling units per one user, in total per SBTS with two HSDPA
schedulers (assuming that the CA DB/DC-HSDPA user is receiving data from two HSDPA
schedulers from two different LCGs)

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Figure 28: Example of carrier aggregation DB/DC-HSDPA UEs connected via primary serving
cell (PSC) and secondary serving cell (SSC)

The maximum number of CA DB/DC-HSDPA users per SBTS is calculated with the following
formula:

Max_#CA_HSDPA_users_BTS= 1/1.5 x 240 x #schedulers

where:
Max_#CA_HSDPA_users_BTS - maximum number of CA DB/DC-HSDPA users per SBTS
#schedulers - number of HSDPA schedulers (CA requires at least two schedulers in the
SBTS)

Table 81: CA DB/DC HSDPA users capacity (Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS)

Number of HSDPA schedulers per SBTS Maximum number of CA DB/DC-HSDPA users

per SBTS

1 N/A

2 320

3 480

4 640

Example
One hundred HSDPA active users and 50 DC users consume Round_up (100 * 1 + 50 * 1.25)
= Round_up (100 + 62.5) = 163 scheduling units.
Therefore, additionally 240 - 163 = 77 scheduling units are unused allowing for allocation of
additional 77 HSDPA users or Round_down (77 / 1.25) = 61 DC users.

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Table 82: CA DC user capacity (Nokia AirScale BTS)

Number of HSDPA schedulers in an LCG Number of CA DC users per LCG

1 160

2 320

3 480

Note:

This is the LCG level capacity considering that all users handled by schedulers are CA
DC users. For mixed profiles (SC/DC and CA DC/DB users combined), the number of
supported users equals to:

[(# primary carriers for CA DC/DB) + (0.5 * # 2nd carriers for

CA DC/DB)] <= (240 * number of HSDPA schedulers in LCG) unit of
load, where one unit is the load required to handle one SC user in a core.

HS CELL_FACH users
One HSDPA user in High Speed CELL_FACH state consumes one scheduling unit.

In addition, one scheduling unit is reserved per HS_FACH enabled cell (RAN1637: HS
Cell_FACH DL required). Each HS_FACH enabled cell consumes one scheduling unit. Thus, an
HSDPA scheduler with six cells, where each cell is HS_FACH enabled, has 240 – 6 = 234
scheduling units.

Multi-RAB users
One HSDPA scheduler supports 240 radio access bearers (RABs). For example, in case of one
multi-RAB UE with ongoing HSDPA data download and simultaneous HSDPA web browsing,
one scheduler can support 238 single-RAB users in addition to one Multi-RAB user with two
HSDPA RABs.

HSDPA Rel.99 CE consumption for A-DCH and DL SRB

An HSDPA active user consumes Rel.99 CEs for DL signaling radio bearer (SRB) processing
and dedicated channel (DCH) return channel processing associated dedicated channel (A-
DCH) for UL.

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SRB and A-DCH R99 CEs for traffic from the respective cells are allocated on the same
system module where the HSDPA scheduler processes the respective cells.

In case of the HSDPA user with high-speed uplink packet access (HSUPA) UL return channel,
Rel.99 CEs are not consumed at all.

The A-DCH consumption depends on the DCH data rate.

Associated UL/DL DCH

The Associated UL/DL DCH of the HSDPA user employs the capacity in the same way as a
normal DCH.

Table 83: Associated DCH and Rel.99 CE usage

User data Rel.99 CE required in UL / Min Rel.99 CE required in DL / Min

SF SF

PS 16 kbps 1/SF64* 1/SF128**

PS 64 kbps 4/SF16 1/SF128**

PS 128 kbps 4/SF8 1/SF128**

PS 384 kbps 8/SF4 1/SF128**

Note:

* If spreading factor (SF) is 32, two Rel.99 CEs are required in UL.

** One Rel.99 CE for DL signaling (SRB) is required per HSDPA user.

Tcell grouping
From the HSDPA point of view, the RNC-specific Frame timing offset of a cell
(Tcell) parameter is used to indicate which cell is processed by which scheduler. Tcell
groups are handled by the schedulers in the following way:

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Table 84: Tcell values handled by HSDPA schedulers (Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS)

Tcell values group Scheduler 1 Scheduler 2

Tcell values from group 1 0, 1, 2 N/A

Tcell values from group 2 N/A 3, 4, 5

Tcell values from group 3 6, 7, 8 N/A

Tcell values from group 4 N/A 9

Table 85: Tcell grouping (Nokia AirScale BTS)

LCG type Scheduler number Tcell group values

LCG with 4 subunits baseband Scheduler #1 Tcell group 1 and 3 (values: 0,

capacity 1, 2 and 6 ,7 ,8)

LCG with more than 4 Scheduler #1 Tcell group 1 (value 0, 1, 2)

subunits baseband capacity
Scheduler #2 Tcell group 2 and 4 (values: 3,
4, 5 and 9)

Scheduler #3 Tcell group 3 (values: 6, 7, 8)

With one scheduler and one Tcell group, up to six cells per Tcell group are supported. With
one scheduler and two Tcell groups, up to three cells per Tcell group are supported (up to
six cells are still supported in total).

The same Tcell values can be used by different cells if those are allocated to different
frequency layers.

DB/DC-HSDPA Tcell settings

The DB as well as DC-HSDPA features require both cells from one sector to have the same
value for the RNC-specific Frame timing offset of a cell (Tcell) parameter.
With the DB or DC functionality, two cells from the same sector must be served by one
system module and one scheduler, and belong to the same LCG. When both cells from the
DC-HSDPA sector are in one band, those must be from adjacent frequencies. The DB-HSDPA
enables DC functionality with two cells from different frequency bands.

The M5000 counters indicating scheduled HSDPA users are Tcell group specific. Tcell
grouping may affect counter behavior.

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Figure 29: System module example of Tcell configurations (1LCG) (1/2)

Figure 30: System module example of Tcell configurations (1LCG) (2/2)

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CA DB/DC-HSDPA Tcell settings

The RAN3067: Flexible HSDPA Carriers Allocation feature enables DB/DC-HSDPA with the
primary serving cell and the secondary serving cell mapped to two separate LCGs, and thus
handled by two separate schedulers. In this case, the CA DB/DC-HSDPA UE is connected via
the primary serving cell and the secondary serving cell mapped to one sector, but different
LCG. Both primary and secondary serving cells must have the same Tcell value. When
RAN3067: Flexible HSDPA Carriers Allocation is enabled, one scheduler supports only one of
the two Tcell groups.

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Table 86: Tcell values handled by HSDPA schedulers when RAN3067: Flexible HSDPA
Carriers Allocation is enabled

Tcell Values Scheduler 1 Scheduler 2

Tcell Values from Group 11) 0, 1, 2 N/A

Tcell Values from Group 22) N/A 3, 4, 5

Tcell Values from Group 33) 6, 7, 8 N/A

Tcell Values from Group 44) N/A 9

Note:

The table above exemplies Tcellparameter values handled by HSDPA schedulers for Flexi
Multiradio 10 BTS.

Note:

1. Tcell values 0, 1, 2 are allowed only if values 6, 7, 8 are not in use by Scheduler 1 in an
LCG.
2. Tcell values 3, 4, 5 are allowed only if value 9 is not in use by Scheduler 2 in an LCG.
3. Tcell values 6, 7, 8 are allowed only if values 0, 1, 2 are not in use by Scheduler 1 in an
LCG.
4. Tcell value 9 is allowed only if values 3, 4, 5 are not in use by Scheduler 2 in an LCG.

Simultaneous HSDPA users in a TTI

An HSDPA scheduler supports a number of users per transmission time interval (TTI),
depending on the feature activation:
RAN3269: Optimized HSDPA Scheduler active.
Up to 24 HSDPA users per scheduler can be code multiplexed, and thus served
simultaneously.
If the cells of a scheduler are mapped to only one Tcell group, the scheduler supports up
to six cells and can select up to 24 users dynamically from the cells that have users
eligible for the transmission in the TTI.
If the cells are mapped to two Tcell groups within the same scheduler, the scheduler
supports up to three cells per Tcell group. It can select up to 12 users per Tcell group
dynamically from the cells within the Tcell group that has users eligible for the
transmission in the TTI.

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RAN3269: Optimized HSDPA Scheduler not active.

Up to 12 HSDPA users per scheduler can be code multiplexed and thus served
simultaneously.
If the cells of a scheduler are mapped to only one Tcell group, the scheduler supports up
to six cells and can select up to 12 users dynamically from the cells that have users
eligible for the transmission in the TTI (RAN3067: Flexible HSDPA Carriers Allocation). The
scheduler supports 18 users in the TTI, where 12 are from the primary serving cells and
the remaining six are from the secondary serving cells.
If the cells are mapped to two Tcell groups within the same scheduler, the scheduler
supports up to three cells per Tcell group and can select up to six users per Tcell group
dynamically from the cells within the Tcell group that has users eligible for the
transmission in the TTI.

With the RAN3269: Optimized HSDPA Scheduler feature, the scheduler supports up to 100%
more users per TTI (up to 12 delta users). Twelve delta users are selected from the users
with small packets (one Packet Data Unit (PDU)), without PDU assembly. For example, PDU
retransmission, high-speed shared control channel (HS-SCCH) order and HS-FACH users that
have small packets to transmit.

3.2.6 HSUPA dimensioning

The high-speed uplink packet access (HSUPA) throughput dependency on activated
features, Capacity Limitation parameters and available baseband resources. Calculating
the required number of subunits for mixed user type cases.

HSUPA is a WCDMA key feature, which provides high data rate transmission to support
multimedia services for the WCDMA RAN. HSUPA is supported only with the coexistence of
high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA). HSUPA is activated per local cell group (LCG). In
case of an SBTS with one system module, HSUPA is activated per LCG and is supported in
multiple LCGs.

HSUPA scheduler
The HSUPA scheduler supports high throughputs and a high number of active users. The
HSUPA active user is served in Cell Dedicated Channel (CELL_DCH). HSUPA is also used in
RAN1913: High Speed Cell_FACH.

The HSUPA throughputs (CELL_DCH) depend on:

the activated features (for example, RAN981: HSUPA 5.8 Mbps, RAN1702: Frequency

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Domain Equalizer, HSUPA 16QAM, RAN1905: Dual Cell HSUPA)

the number of HSUPA users allowed in the SBTS, based on the Capacity Limitation
parameters sent by NetAct
the available baseband resources.

The number of HSUPA users actively served in the SBTS may depend on available baseband
resources as well as actively used features (RAN1201: Fractional DPCH).

One HSUPA scheduler is available with one LCG. Additional LCGs provide additional HSUPA
schedulers.

HSUPA traffic impact on available capacity

The HSUPA traffic is processed by the HSUPA scheduler as follows:

The activation of the HSUPA scheduler has no impact on the available baseband capacity.
Active HSUPA users and a total HSUPA scheduler throughput have impact on the available
baseband capacity. In case of active HSUPA users, the HSUPA scheduler in the system
module consumes HSUPA resource steps.
The HSUPA resource step is a baseband capacity equivalent of 0.125 subunits.
Release 99 channel elements (R99 CE) are not consumed by the HSUPA active user
allocations (neither by the data channels or signaling radio bearer (SRB)) in the system
module.
The impact of active HSUPA users on available baseband capacity depends on the
number of HSUPA users and HSUPA scheduler throughput, as well as if the HSUPA user is
actively using the following features:
HSUPA 2 ms transmission time interval (TTI)
HSUPA 10 ms TTI
fractional downlink physical channel (F-DPCH) (RAN1201: Fractional DPCH)
RAN3259: HSUPA Baseband Boost for non-FDPCH Users

The HSUPA active users and throughput impact on the available baseband capacity is
presented in the excel Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS and Nokia AirScale BTS HSUPA Capacity
Tables in Single RAN Operating Documentation.

The subunit usage can change on a TTI basis. In one TTI, a UE transmits with 16 quadrature
amplitude modulation (QAM), while in the other TTI, a lower modulation order is used. For
example, 16 QAM usage depends on the radio conditions or the amount of data in the UE
buffer.

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HSUPA dynamic resource reservation

The baseband capacity is reserved for the HSUPA dynamically, as needed basis. If there are
active HSUPA users in the LCG, a certain number of HSUPA resource steps are reserved. If
the throughput or the number of users decreases, or both, the reserved resources can get
released, depending on the baseband resource situation in the SBTS. If there is a need for
baseband resources for higher-priority traffic (for example DCH traffic), the SBTS releases
the resources faster.

If there is no baseband congestion, the HSUPA resource might not get released fast. This is
done to keep the HSUPA resources ready to use, especially for users with bursty
transmission. This improves latency, round trip time and end-user experience as well as
instant UE throughput. Therefore, a subunit utilization indicator may appear high, but this
does not necessarily indicate that the SBTS baseband resources have reached maximum
capacity. The dynamic allocation of baseband resources keeps the HSUPA subunit utilization
on a high level, although more users can be served additionally. By allocating extra (not
used) subunits for the users, the scheduling changes are much faster (on the scale of
scheduling periods), as there is no immediate need for HW allocation changes and the new
serving grants can be provided to the UEs immediately.

For information about capacity usage monitoring, see the WCDMA RAN Operating
Documentation/WCDMA RAN System/Managing WCDMA RAN Capacity document.

If there are no active HSUPA users in the LCG, there is no dynamic baseband resource
reservation.

If there is an increase in the number of active HSUPA users or the HSUPA scheduler
throughput or both, the resource steps are also reserved (allocated) accordingly. To allocate
the next HSUPA resource step, an additional free capacity of 12 R99 CEs is needed.

These 12 R99 CEs can constitute any licensed R99 CEs in any system module. The required
six R99 CE free on top of the HSUPA resource step is to avoid a ping-pong effect in
reserving and freeing HSUPA resource steps. This action is needed so that the HSUPA
resource step is not requested back immediately after its allocation.

When the free channel capacity drops below eight, the Resource Manager starts to release
resources used by HSUPA.

HSUPA required resource dimensioning

To calculate the required number of subunits for mixed user type cases (F-DPCH/no-
FDPCH/2ms TTI/10msTTI users, 16QAM, DC-HSUPA), the following rule is applied.

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HSUPA_Subunits = F-DPCH_2msTTI_subunits + no-FDPCH_10msTTI_subunits +

16QAM_2msTTI_subunits + HS_Cell_FACH_UL_(RAN1913)_users
where:
F-DPCH_2msTTI_subunits – subunits required for the HSUPA F-DPCH 2 ms TTI users,
calculated from the HSUPA dimensioning tables (See Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS and Nokia
AirScale BTS HSUPA capacity tables)
F-DPCH_10msTTI_subunits – subunits required for the HSUPA F-DPCH 10 ms TTI
users, calculated from the HSUPA dimensioning tables (See Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS and
Nokia AirScale BTS HSUPA capacity tables)
No-F-DPCH_2msTTI_subunits – subunits required for the HSUPA no-F-DPCH 2 ms TTI
users, calculated from the HSUPA dimensioning tables (See Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS and
Nokia AirScale BTS HSUPA capacity tables)
No-F-DPCH_10msTTI_subunits – subunits required for the HSUPA no-F-DPCH 10 ms
TTI users, calculated from the HSUPA dimensioning tables (See Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS
and Nokia AirScale BTS HSUPA capacity tables)
16QAM_2msTTI_subunits – subunits required for the UEs simultaneously transmitting
with 16QAM modulation
HS_Cell_FACH_UL_(RAN1913)_users – subunits required for the RAN1913: High
Speed Cell_FACH (HS Cell_FACH UL)

In some cases, the rule presented above leads to overestimation of the baseband
resources. For more information, see Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS and Nokia AirScale BTS HSUPA
capacity tables.

Narrowband interference cancellation (NBIC)

The RAN3374: Narrowband Interference Cancellation feature impacts WDCMA BB
dimensioning. Narrowband interference within the SBTS receiving band is detected and
filtered out automatically and dynamically. Externally, narrowband interference within the
uplink receiving band at SBTS level can destroy the cell’s performance altogether. With the
NBIC feature, the high cost of finding and removing the external source can be avoided, as
the cell’s performance remains the same in spite of the interference spikes. More than three
times larger cell coverage can be maintained for the site, proportional with the magnitude of
narrowband interference. NBIC is supported with FSMF and AirScale Indoor System Module.

The RAN3374: Narrowband Interference Cancellation feature is activated on LCG level with
the WNCELG Narrowband Interference Cancellation enabled (nbicEnabled)
parameter when:

LCG has up to six cells two-way RX Div or up to three cells four-way RX Div

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LCG WNCELG HSPA setting (hspaSetting) parameter value is set to HSPA Normal
or R99 only (valid for FSMF only)

On SBTS level, the sum of the existing PIC pools plus the activated NBIC LCGs must be lower
than or equal to four. Thus, the maximum number of supported NBIC LCGs depends on the
number of activated PIC pools as presented in the following table.

Table 87: Maximum number of supported SBTS configurations with NBIC and PIC

Number of PIC pools per SBTS Maximum number of supported NBIC LCGs per
SBTS

0 4

1 3

2 2

3 1

4 0

NBIC cannot be activated:

In the LCG that has a mix of two-way RX Div cells and four-way RX Div cells
In LCG with the WNCELG HSPA setting (hspaSetting) parameter value set to HSPA
Small

Activation of NBIC in LCG requires static reservation of 0.5 subunit for NBIC resource
processing. This 0.5 subunit is used for NBIC feature processing and is not available for DCH,
HSUPA or High Speed Random Access Channel (HS-RACH) processing. The impact of NBIC
activation on available baseband capacity is presented in the following table.

Table 88: Number of subunits reserved from the LCG capacity after NBIC activation (FSMF)

LCG HSPA settings Total cost in terms of static resource

consumption per LCG after NBIC activation

Normal HSPA 0.5 subunit

R99 only 0.5 subunit

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Table 89: Number of subunits reserved from the LCG capacity after NBIC activation (AirScale
Indoor System Module)

LCG subunits Total cost in terms of static resource

consumption per LCG after NBIC activation

LCG with four subunits baseband capacity 1 subunit

LCG with more than four subunits baseband 0.5 subunit

capacity

Dynamic spectrum sharing

DSS allows the spectrum to be shared dynamically between 2G, 3G, 4G or 5G technologies
based on the needs of the end user to improve spectrum utilization. With DSS, operators
don't need to split the available spectrum or have dedicated spectrum for either
technology, but, instead spectrum is dynamically shared, based on traffic demand.

The DSS functionality covers spectrum sharing between the following technologies:
GSM and WCDMA
GSM and LTE
WCDMA and LTE
LTE and 5G

Note:

For more information regarding each DSS technology, see Dynamic Spectrum Sharing
Features document.

Enhanced HSUPA interference cancellation feature dimensioning (PIC pools)

To achieve the high HSUPA throughput, the following interference cancellation (IC) features
are recommended:
RAN1308: HSUPA Interference Cancellation Receiver
RAN2250: Enhanced HSUPA IC

RAN2250: Enhanced HSUPA IC requires RAN1308: HSUPA Interference Cancellation

Receiver. RAN2250: Enhanced HSUPA IC has no impact on baseband dimensioning.

The IC is performed with PIC pool units. With the WNCEL PIC Pool (picPool)

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commissioning parameter, the operator can activate the required number of PIC pools, and
then perform cell mapping to the PIC pools.

Four-way RX Div is supported with the interference cancellation feature on FSMF or AirScale
Indoor System Module, provided that the RAN3046: Interference Cancellation for 4RX
feature is enabled.

Interference cancellation unit (PIC pool)

PIC pool unit mapping rules:

Up to six cells with two-way RX Div can be mapped to one PIC pool unit and interference
cancellation is performed in six cells at the same time.
Up to three cells with four-way RX Div can be mapped to one PIC pool unit and
interference cancellation is performed in three cells at the same time.
Cells from the same frequency layer within the LCG must be mapped to the same PIC
pool unit.
In AirScale Indoor System Module, one PIC pool unit consumes one subunit capacity. PIC
allocation excludes CCCH pool allocation in the same group.
In AirScale Indoor System Module, only one PIC pool can be associated per baseband
subunit group.
In AirScale Indoor System Module, each PIC activation excludes additional CCCH
processing resource allocation in grouped subunits.

Every PIC pool supports a mix of cells with different RX Div.

General:

A maximum of four PIC pools in the SBTS

A maximum of six cells (two-way RX) in the PIC pool
A maximum of three cells (four-way RX) in the PIC pool
A maximum of three PIC pools per LCG
A maximum of two PIC pools per BB card (ABIA/FBBA/C cards)

Note:

If NBIC (RAN3374: Narrowband Interference Cancellation) is activated in the LCG, a mix

of cells with different RX Div mode is not supported. For more details, see
Narrowband interference cancellation (NBIC).

A commissioned PIC pool is successfully allocated in FSMF System Module baseband

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capacity only if, after PIC pool allocation, there is a minimum of baseband resource capacity
available for DCH/HSUPA traffic processing. Otherwise, the BTS reports the fault 0145:
Resource block not available. The minimum baseband resource capacity mentioned
above is required to guarantee minimum DCH/HSUPA capacity and depends on the DSP
internal deployment. However, in case one PIC pool is allocated in single FSMF with 1 x LCG,
the number of additional CCCH pools must not be higher than the values defined in the
following table.

Table 90: Maximum number of additional CCCH pools, assuming that one PIC pool is
commissioned and allocated

FSMF FMSF LCG #CCCH pools #CCCH pools Maximum Maximum

WCDMA conguration included in from HSDPA number of number of PIC
capacity HW scheduler additional pools
resources CCCH pools commissioned
and
successfully
allocated

5.5 subunits Normal HSPA 1 2 3 1

5.5 subunits Small HSPA 1 1 4 1

If the number of additional CCCH pools is higher than the values defined in the table above,
the commissioned PIC pool is not allocated and the BTS reports fault 0145 Resource
block not available. The required number of CCCH pools is a result of dimensioning of
the RHE.

If the number of subunits for WCDMA capacity is higher or lower than 5.5 subunits, then the
maximum number of additional Common Control Channels (CCCH) pools can be decreased
or increased respectively on a 1:1 ratio. For example: if the number of WCDMA subunits is
6.5, then the maximum number of additional CCCH pools parameter can be increased by 1
or the number of PIC pools can be increased by 1.

Example: Calculating the maximum number of supported cells based on the following BTS
configuration:

FSMF with 1 x LCG Normal HSPA

1 x PIC pool commissioned
Cell configuration: 60-km cell range, four-way RACH signatures, two-way RX Div

Solution steps:
The required number of RHE per cell = 60 * 4* 2 = 480 RHE
One CCCH pool supports 480 RHE, hence one CCCH pool per cell is required

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To serve six cells, a total of six CCCH pools are required:

Two CCCH pools are included in HSDPA scheduler resources (see Table: Number of
CCCH pools and RHE capacity in the FSMF HSDPA scheduler subunits) and one CCCH
pool is included in the FSMF HW (see CCCH resources in FSMF).
Three additional CCCH pools are needed. However, three additional CCCH pools is
more than the limit defined in Table: Maximum number of additional CCCH pools,
assuming that one PIC pool is commissioned and allocated. Therefore, with one PIC
pool allocated, up to five cells are supported.

Note:

For details on CCCH and RHE dimensioning, see Common Control Channels
dimensioning.

PIC dimensioning details for Nokia AirScale BTS

If RF units with WCDMA cells are connected only to one ABIA in AirScale half-subrack (core),
then:

If 32 or fewer WCDMA RXes are configured in total in a given AirScale half-subrack, then
there can be up to four PIC pools configured in that half-subrack.
If more than 32 WCDMA RXes are configured in a given AirScale half-subrack, then it’s
possible to configure whole PIC pools 1 and 2 (each can have in total 12 RXes in a
maximum of six cells) and reduced PIC pool 3 (with up to 8 RXes in a maximum of six cells)
in that half-subrack.

If RF units with WCDMA cells are connected to two ABIAs in AirScale half-subrack (core), when
the SR002075: Support for Configuration with WCDMA Radio Modules Connected to Two
ABIAs feature is used, then:
In case both ABIAs with connected WCDMA RF units have WCDMA baseband allocated on
them, the PIC feature is not supported in any LCG allocated in that half-subrack. PIC
pools commissioned in that half-subrack are ignored.
In case at least one of these ABIAs with connected WCDMA RF units does not have
WCDMA baseband allocated (for example, there is LTE baseband and/or GSM baseband
allocated only), it is possible to configure two whole PIC pools (each can have in total 12
RXes in a maximum of six cells) and a third, reduced PIC pool (with up to 8 RXes in a
maximum of six cells) in that AirScale half-subrack.

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High Speed Cell_FACH feature dimensioning

The RAN1913: High Speed Cell_FACH feature consumes baseband resources for the HS
Cell_FACH UL user processing. Using the WNCELG Min number of HSUPA resource
steps for HS-RACH users(minNumOfHsRachResourceStepsRes) and WNCELG Max
number of HSUPA resource steps for HS-RACH users
(maxNumOfHsRachResourceStepsRes) parameters, the operator can define the
allocation of baseband resources for the HS Cell_FACH UL users. Baseband resource
allocation is done in steps:
Up to eight steps are available for each LCG.
A single step provides baseband capacity for 10 HS Cell_FACH UL users.
A single step corresponds to the baseband capacity equivalent of a single HSUPA
resource step: 0.125 subunit.
A maximum of 80 HS Cell_FACH UL users can be served in the LCG, which corresponds to
eight HSUPA resource steps.
If the RAN2518: High Speed Cell_FACH Enhanced feature is deactivated, up to four steps
can be effectively used (up to 40 HS Cell_FACH UL users). If RAN2518 is activated, up to
eight steps can be used (up to 80 HS Cell_FACH UL users).
If the RAN3280: Dynamic Baseband for HS RACH feature is activated, the allocation of
baseband resources for HS Cell_FACH UL is done automatically and dynamically,
depending on the HS Cell_FACH UL traffic. This is done using the WNCELG Min number
of HSUPA resource steps for HS-RACH users
(minNumOfHsRachResourceStepsRes) and WNCELG Max number of HSUPA
resource steps for HS-RACH users (maxNumOfHsRachResourceStepsRes)
parameters. At runtime, additional resources up to WNCELG Max number of HSUPA
resource steps for HS-RACH users (maxNumOfHsRachResourceStepsRes) are
gradually allocated with resolution on a single HSUPA resource step. Allocation is
triggered if already allocated baseband resources are lower than the configured common
enhanced dedicated transport channel (E-DCH) resources for the HS Cell_FACH UL users,
considering the number of preambles that are Not Acknowledged (NACK-ed). Gradual
release of resources down to WNCELG Min number of HSUPA resource steps for
HS-RACH users (minNumOfHsRachResourceStepsRes) with one HSUPA resource
step resolution is triggered based on the runtime resource usage when allocated
baseband resource capacity is higher than the average active amount of common E-DCH
resources. Both parameters can be modified online without SBTS reset.
If the RAN3280: Dynamic Baseband for HS RACH feature is not active, the allocation of
baseband resources for the HS Cell_FACH UL is done statically and is not dependent on
the HS Cell_FACH UL traffic. This is done using the WNCELG Min number of HSUPA
resource steps for HS-RACH users (minNumOfHsRachResourceStepsRes) and

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WNCELG Max number of HSUPA resource steps for HS-RACH users

(maxNumOfHsRachResourceStepsRes) parameters. In this case, both parameters have
the same value. The default values of these parameters are different.

The WNCELG Min number of HSUPA resource steps for HS-RACH users
(minNumOfHsRachResourceStepsRes) parameter has a default value of 0 and the
WNCELG Max number of HSUPA resource steps for HS-RACH users
(maxNumOfHsRachResourceStepsRes) has a default value of 1 (regardless of the
RAN3280: Dynamic Baseband for HS RACH feature activation status), which means that no
static baseband resource allocation is done. In this case, when the RNC configures the HS
Cell_FACH UL users in the cell (it means common E-DCH resources are reserved for HS-Cell
FACH UL cell), the SBTS attempts to dynamically allocate one HSUPA resource step in the
LCG for HS Cell_FACH UL users (supporting a maximum of 10 users in the LCG). If the
baseband capacity is available, one resource step is allocated for the HS Cell_FACH UL. If the
baseband capacity is not available, the HS Cell_FACH UL setup from the RNC is rejected.
RAN1637: High Speed Cell_FACH DL users do not require any baseband resource
reservation.

Dual-Cell HSUPA feature dimensioning

Rules for Dual-Cell HSUPA (DC-HSUPA) feature dimensioning:

A DC-HSUPA user is seen as two single-carrier HSUPA (SC-HSUPA) users from the
maximum number of users per HSUPA scheduler. For example, with one DC-HSUPA user,
the HSUPA scheduler in the LCG supports a maximum of 618 SC-HSUPA users.
A DC-HSUPA user is counted only in the primary cell from the WBTS Maximum number
of E-DCHs in the cell (MaxNumberEDCHCell) parameter point of view.
A DC-HSUPA user is counted only once per LCG from the WBTS Maximum number of
E-DCHs in the local cell group (MaxNumberEDCHLCG) parameter point of
view.
A single LCG configuration supports up to 310 DC-HSUPA users in the LCG.
Both DC-HSUPA cells must be within the same LCG.
Up to 10 DC-HSUPA users are supported per cell.
DC-HSUPA operation is supported only with F-DPCH and 2 ms TTI.
A DC-HSUPA user is seen as two SC-HSUPA users from the HSUPA resource consumption
point of view. In Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS and Nokia AirScale BTS HSUPA capacity tables:
The HSUPA users per scheduler column defines SC-HSUPA users, thus one DC-
HSUPA user is counted as two SC-HSUPA users.
The Baseband minimum decoding capacity row defines the capacity that the

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SBTS shares for all the cells in the LCG.

RAN3067: Flexible HSDPA Carriers Allocation and RAN1905: DC-HSUPA cannot be
enabled simultaneously.

HSUPA 16 QAM feature dimensioning

Up to three UEs transmitting with 16 QAM modulation can be allocated in one subunit as
presented in the following table.

Table 91: FSMF subunit HSUPA UE allocation

Number of HSUPA 16 QAM transmitting users Required subunits (FSMF)

1 0.375*

2 0.625

3 0.875

Note:

*One 16 QAM UE consumes 0.375 subunit with throughput between 4.2 Mbps and 11
Mbps. 16 QAM is not used with throughput < 4.2 Mbps. In this case, dimensioning is
done based on the HSUPA dimensioning tables (Flexi Multiradio 10 BTS and Nokia
AirScale BTS HSUPA capacity tables).
Subunit utilization can change on a TTI base. In the first TTI, the UE transmits with 16
QAM modulation. In the second TTI, different modulation can be used, depending on
the radio conditions or the amount of data in the UE buffer.

3.2.7 Multi RAB

Multi RAB and its classification

A call of a single user with multiple (up to four) services active simultaneously is a multi-RAB
call. For example, a UE actively downloading data via the High Speed Downlink Packet Access
(HSDPA) service while having simultaneous Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) voice call, has a multi-
RAB service with two Radio Access Bearers (RABs) established: HSDPA RAB + AMR RAB. The
general classification of multi-RAB calls is as follows:
HSDPA + AMR call

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HSUPA + AMR call

HSUPA/HSDPA + HSUPA/HSDPA call
DCH + DCH call

HSPA + AMR call resource allocation

If the AMR DCH service is established while the UE has an active HSPA connection, the AMR
service is processed with already allocated HSUPA resources. The AMR service of a multi-RAB
call does not require any additional baseband resources for processing, neither release 99
channel elements (R99 CE) license keys (LKs) are required in UL or DL.

The setup of an AMR service with ongoing HSPA connection may have an impact on available
baseband resources, depending if the UE actively uses the fractional downlink physical
channel (F-DPCH) feature:
HSPA non-FDPCH connection: the newly established AMR service of the multi-RAB call
does not have any impact on available baseband resources.
HSPA FDPCH connection: if the AMR service of multi-RAB call is newly set up, the HSUPA
connection is considered as HSUPA non-FDPCH from the baseband resource
consumption point of view.

DCH + DCH call resource allocation

Each DCH service of a multi-RAB call requires separate R99 CE baseband resources in UL or
DL for processing. In case of a multi-RAB call, an equivalent amount of R99 CEs is consumed
as in the case of separate DCH single-RAB calls.

For example, 64/64 kbps + 64/128 kbps multi-RAB baseband resource reservation is the
same as baseband resource reservation for 64/64 kbps and 64/128 kbps single RABs.

3.3 GSM baseband dimensioning in SBTS

Overview on the required number of transceivers (TRXs) on AirScale and FSMF

In GSM, the capacity is expressed by max number of TRXs, which can be served by specified
baseband resources.

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GSM usage of BB resources within FSMF

Table 92: GSM capacity within FSMF

BB plug-in GSM GSM/WCDMA GSM/LTE GSM/WCDMA/LTE

unit

FSMF 24 TRXs 24 TRXs / 3.5 24 TRXs / 1 RCS -

or subunits
36 TRXs or
36 TRXs / 2.5
subunits

FBBA/C - - - -

FSMF + - 24 TRXs / 9.5 24 TRXs / (1 RCS +1 24 TRXs / 5.5 subunits /

FBBA/C subunits BCS) 1 RCS
or or
36TRXs / 8.5 24 TRXs / 3.5 subunits/
subunits 1 BCS
or
36 TRXs / 2.5 subunits /
1 BCS

FSMF + 2 x - 24 TRXs / 15.5 24 TRXs / 1 RCS + 1 24 TRXs / 11.5 subunits

FBBA/C subunits ECS / 1 RCS
or or or
36 TRXs / 14.5 24 TRXs / 1 RCS+2 24 TRXs / 5.5 subunits /
subunits BCS 1 RCS + 1BCS
or or
36 TRXs / 2 BCS 24 TRXs / 3.5 subunits /
or 2 BCS
36 TRXs / 1 ECS or
24 TRXs / 3.5 subunits /
1 ECS
or
36 TRXs / 1 ECS
or
36 TRXs / 2 BCS

In one FSMF core module, GSM can occupy ½ of FSMF total resources or ¾ of FSMF total
resources. In the case where GSM occupies ½ of FSMF resources, 1 of 4 FSMF processors
are dedicated to cover GSM traffic. In this case, the following number of TRXs are supported:
Up to 24 TRXs (1TX/1RX, 1TX/2RX configuration)
Up to 8 TRXs (1TX/1RX, 1TX/2RX configuration) + 8 TRXs (2TX/2RX, 1TX/4RX, 2TX/4RX
configuration)
Up to 8 TRXs (2TX/2RX, 1TX/4RX, 2TX/4RX configuration)

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When GSM occupies ¾ of FSMF resources, 3 of 4 FSMF processors are dedicated to cover
GSM traffic. In this case, the following number of TRXs are supported:
Up to 36 TRXs (1TX/1RX, 1TX/2RX configuration)
Up to 12 TRXs (1TX/1RX, 1TX/2RX configuration) + 12 TRXs (2TX/2RX, 1TX/4RX, 2TX/4RX
Up to 12 TRXs (2TX/2RX, 1TX/4RX, 2TX/4RX configuration)

GSM usage of BB resources within ABIA

GSM traffic can be located on ¼ ABIA, supporting 24TRXs or up to ½ of ABIA, supporting 36
TRXs. The remaining resources of the same ABIA can be used to serve LTE or WCDMA traffic.

Table 93: GSM capacity within ABIA

BB plug-in unit GSM GSM-WCDMA GSM-LTE

ABIA 24 TRXs ( ¼ of 24 TRXs / 6 subunits 24 TRXs / 1 x BCS

ABIA) or or
or 36 TRXs / 4 subunits 24 TRXs / 1 x PCS
36 TRXs (½ of or
ABIA) 36 TRXs / 1 x BCS
or
36 TRXs / 1 x PCS

½ ABIA 24 TRXs ( ¼ of - -
ABIA)
or
36 TRXs (½ of
ABIA)

When GSM occupies ¼ of ABIA resources, the following number of TRXs are supported:
Up to 24 TRXs (1TX/1RX, 1TX/2RX configuration)
Up to 8 TRXs (1TX/1RX, 1TX/2RX configuration) + 8 TRXs ( with 2TX/2RX, 1TX/4RX,
2TX/4RX configuration)
Up to 8 TRXs (2TX/2RX, 1TX/4RX, 2TX/4RX configuration)

When GSM occupies ½ of ABIA resources, the following number of TRXs are supported:
Up to 36 TRXs (1TX/1RX, 1TX/2RX configuration)
Up to 12 TRXs (1TX/1RX, 1TX/2RX configuration) + 12TRX ( with 2TX/2RX, 1TX/4RX,
2TX/4RX configuration)
Up to 12 TRXs (2TX/2RX, 1TX/4RX, 2TX/4RX configuration)

For more information on GSM baseband dimensioning in SBTS, see the Operating

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Documentation/GSM in Single RAN/BTS EDGE Dimensioning document.

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4. Common transport dimensioning in SBTS

How to dimension the common transport network in SBTS

4.1 SBTS common transport dimensioning process

Concept of common transport and the method of computing network load

Single RAN introduces the concept of common transport. Instead of having one transport
for each RAT, there is only one shared transport entity in SBTS.

Network load is calculated separately for each RAT. The total network load is calculated as a
sum of loads of GSM, WCDMA and LTE technologies. GSM is treated as a fallback for WCDMA
in terms of voice services.

There are two possible approaches to common transport dimensioning in SBTS:

Based on traffic profile (recommended)
Based on air interface capabilities

4.2 Dimensioning based on traffic profile (recommended)

Traffic profile dimensioning benefits

Dimensioning based on traffic profile has the following benefits:

It is adapted to actual needs.
Quality of Service (QoS) parameters are taken into account, which improves performance.

A traffic profile must be provided by the operator. If a traffic profile is not available, a
default Nokia traffic profile is used.

4.3 Dimensioning based on air interface capabilities

Dimensioning methods for air interface capabilites

Dimensioning based on air interface capabilities has the following benefits:

It is a simple and straightforward calculation.
It can be used if a traffic profile is not available.

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There are three approaches to dimensioning based on air interface capabilities, each based
on different assumptions:
All-Average
The backhaul connection supports the aggregated average capacity of all cells. The
average capacity is determined under realistic air interface conditions and multiple users
per cell.
All-Average/Single-Peak
The backhaul connection supports the aggregated average capacity of all cells or the
peak capacity of one cell (whichever has the greater value).
All-Peak
The backhaul connection supports the aggregated peak capacity of all cells. The peak
capacity is determined under ideal air interface conditions and with a single user per cell.
This approach leads to over-dimensioning, which usually generates extra costs.

Figure 31: Approaches based on air interface capabilities

The table above presents the recommended dimensioning range. As an example, a three-
sector base station is used. However, it is scalable to base stations having more than three
sectors.

The All-Average/Single-Peak approach is a good way to optimize both performance and

costs. However, it may lead to over-dimensioning for sites with low utilization, and under-
dimensioning for hot spots.

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Figure 32: Dimensioning based on air interface capacity with carrier aggregation

The carrier aggregation introduces the UE peak. At least a single UE peak must be
transported via the backhaul network. This peak is determined by the sum of carriers being
aggregated (as the two carriers shown in the figure above).

The LTE3022/SR001419: Inter-site Carrier Aggregation feature extends the existing carrier
aggregation functionality by allowing the aggregation of additional secondary cells (SCells)
hosted by remote eNBs/SBTSs connected over the X2 interface.

Inter-site carrier aggregation (CA) is possible only in downlink, and for a maximum of five
component carriers (CC) in FDD mode or for a maximum of four CCs in the mixed mode (2
FDD + 2 TDD). The maximum number of eNBs/SBTSs involved in a single inter-site CA
operation is four.

Due to inter-site CA, additional traffic is observed on the S1 interface (PCell) and on the X2
interfaces. Interface dimensioning must consider this extra traffic.

The traffic split among the CCs in downlink is realized by the data scheduler in the master
eNB/SBTS (the one hosting the primary cell (PCell)). The entire traffic due to inter-site CA is
processed first in the master eNB/SBTS before it gets dispatched to the other eNBs/SBTSs
over the X2 interface.

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Figure 33: Inter-site carrier aggregation

The eNB/SBTS that is chosen as PCell faces additional traffic in downlink (S1-U) and uplink
(X2-U). The SCell's total downlink traffic does not change, nor does the inter-site CA traffic
for total cell capacity. As such, the total amount of SCell traffic is just moving from S1-U to a
sum of S1-U and X2-U. The selection of the PCell is also distributed across the eNB/SBTS
and the expected percentage of inter-site CA calls is fairly moderate. This results in an
increase of the total downlink and uplink traffic, although not to a significant amount.
Precise dimensioning can be done only by taking into account several assumptions and
configuration parameters.

4.4 Transport overhead and dimensioning example

Network load calculation based on air interface and transport overhead

When calculating network load, the air interface overhead and transport overhead must be
taken into account. Typically, transport overhead amounts to 27% of the packet size

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increase, 2% of which results from air interface overhead. If IPsec is not in use, transport
overhead amounts to 15%.

Note:

The overhead depends on the average packet size, which can vary from traffic profile
to traffic profile. The overhead increases further when IPv6 is used.

Figure 34: Example of SBTS common transport dimensioning based on air interface capabilities
without LTE carrier aggregation

Transport in downlink direction:

75 Mbit/s net PHY peak rate per cell (64 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) 2 x 2
MIMO)
17 Mbit/s net PHY average rate per cell

Transport in uplink direction:

25 Mbit/s net PHY peak rate per cell (16 QAM)
7 Mbit/s net PHY average rate per cell

Transport overhead (Ethernet layer, with IPsec):

Air interface overhead (PDCP/RLC) -2%
Transport overhead (GTP-U, UDP, IPv4, Eht) +15%
IPsec overhead: +12%
Total (on top air interface capacity) +25%

MAX((Σ average), cell peak, UE peak) = MAX(3 * 7; 25) = 25 Mbit/s

MAX((Σ average), cell peak, UE peak) = MAX(3 * 17; 75) = 75 Mbit/s

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25 * (1 + 0.25) = 31 Mbit/s

75 * (1 + 0.25) = 94 Mbit/s

In case carrier aggregation is used, the possible UE peak exceeds the cell peak, since several
cell peaks are combined.

4.5 Estimation of C-Plane, M-Plane and S-Plane bit rates

C-plane, M-Plane and S-plane bit rate estimation methods

Control Plane (C-Plane) bit rate:

Depends on user activity and mobility.
During calculation, only the simplest method is taken into account:
TransportCapacityC-Plane[kbit/s] = TransportCapacityU-Plane[kbit/s] * C-
PlaneBWPercentage[%]
Default values for C-PlaneBWPercentage:
LTE = 1%
WCDMA = 6%

Management Plane (M-Plane) bit rate:

Mainly depends on counter and tracing configuration.
Peaks may reach up to 30 Mbit/s. However, only a small part (0-5 Mbit/s) is needed on a
permanent basis.
Recommended bandwidth from transport dimensioning perspective:
LTE = 1 Mbit/s
WCDMA = 64 kbit/s
GSM = 64 kbit/s

Synchronization Plane (S-Plane) bit rate:

Depends on the selected synchronization method:
Timing over Packet (ToP) with frequency synchronization = ~16 kbps/site (at 16
msgs/second)
Timing over Packet (ToP) with phase synchronization = ~239 kbps/site (at 128
msgs/second)
Synchronous Ethernet (SynchE) = ~8kbps/site (SSM messaging)

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4.6 Mutliplexing gain

Transport link bandwidth save using multiplexing gain

Multiplexing gain is the amount of transport link bandwidth (BW) that can be saved by
considering the diversity of the traffic demand, that is the variation of the traffic load in
time and the available buffering space.

Figure 35: Calculation of the multiplexing gain

The figure below presents multiplexing gain on the transport network between two radio
cells (LTE and HSDPA).

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Multiplexing gain decreases as cell load increases.

Figure 36: LTE and HSDPA cell load multiplexing gain

For details on WCDMA access network dimensioning, see Dimensioning WCDMA RAN: Access
Network (Transport Interfaces).

For details on LTE access network dimensioning, see Long Term Evolution Operating
Documentation/ LTE Radio Access/ LTE System/ Planning LTE System/ LTE Access
Dimensioning Guideline document.

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5. SRAN capacity licenses

SRAN capacity licensing is based on air interface traffic and backhaul transport traffic.

License management is a method for controlling the use of optional software applications,
the capacity of network elements, and some optional hardware functionalities. For more
details, see 5G and SRAN License Operation.

The air interface traffic licenses are:

SR001004.T SBTS Data User
RAN2123.4.T R99 CE capacity
RAN2123.6.T CCCH Processing Set
BSC00311 Flexi Multiradio TRX HW activation license

Backhaul transport traffic is covered by the licenses introduced by the SR000834: IP Traffic
Capacity feature. There are three options available, the operator can choose only one at a
time, and the options are mutually exclusive.

Backhaul transport traffic licenses are:

SR000834.1.T SBTS Daily UP Data Volume
SR000834.3.T SBTS Quarterly UP Data Volume
SR000834.2.T SBTS Busy Hour UP Throughput

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6. Dimensioning glossary
A glossary with specific terms related to dimensioning

AirScale Capacity A capacity plug-in unit for the Nokia AirScale System Module
extension plug-in unit Indoor/Outdoor. It provides cell-specic baseband processing and
(ABIA) optical interfaces to radio units.

AirScale Common plug-in A networking card within the AirScale System Module. ASIA provides
unit (ASIA) transport interfaces and centralized processing.

baseband (BB) pool Concentration of baseband resources in one place that enables signal
processing resources to be shared between cells. This helps maximize
the efficiency of baseband processing capacity usage.

Carrier Aggregation (CA) In radio resource management, a method of increasing the bit rate
by increasing the bandwidth. It is done by scheduling the data
package transfer to more than one cell (component carriers). In CA,
one cell acts as a primary cell and is changed only during the
handover process, while the other component carriers are served by
secondary cells and can be added or removed as required.

Centralized SW License Centralized application that provides a central control point for
Server (CLS) sharing an SW license key-based right-to-use to Nokia Networks
software.

component carrier In Carrier Aggregation (CA), the part of transmission bandwidth.

Component carriers can belong to the same band (intra-band CA) or
they can be part of different bands (inter-band CA).

control plane (C-plane) The layer performing the signaling functions necessary to set up,
supervise, and release calls and connections.

Internet Protocol version 6 The sixth version of the Internet Protocol with the most important
(IPv6) improvement to Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4), namely the
generation of more IP addresses.

primary cell (PCell) In Carrier Aggregation (CA), the cell that is used to congure the
connection. The PCell hosts radio resource control protocol data
connection besides to providing an additional bandwidth to increase
the bit rate. The PCell for the UE is changed only at handover.

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quadrature amplitude Modulation system that signicantly increases the amount of

modulation (QAM) information that can be carried within a given bandwidth.

secondary cell (SCell) In Carrier Aggregation (CA), the additional cell that hosts a component
carrier. The SCell provides an additional bandwidth to increase the bit
rate. The SCell for the UE can be added or removed when required.

user plane (U-plane) A layer in which user data or speech coming from the radio network
controller is converted to pulse code modulation (PCM) user data and
the other way round.

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