Overview

The objective of network planning and design is to provide wireless telephony services in a serving area in the most cost-effective manner. In the case of an existing system, the objective is to expand and augment its facilities so as to add new features and capabilities or increase its capacity in case the system has reached its coverage limit. The design usually involves determining the number of base stations and their locations that would provide the necessary coverage in a serving area, meet the desired grade of service, and satisfy the required traffic growth so that the total startup cost is minimized and the rate of return maximized. Clearly, if the network is well planned, it would be able to meet the traffic growth within the limits of its design until a point is reached where it becomes necessary to add new cells, assign new frequencies to an existing cell, or supplement the old system with a new one in a manner that is consistent with the quality of service objectives. Because base stations are to be connected to a mobile switching office, the design also requires the capacity and type of the connecting links to be specified. Sometimes elements of the core network may not be able to support new services, such as high-speed multimedia applications or gateway access to a packet data network. In these cases, the network planner must consider upgrading the switching systems.

The design process is roughly the following [5], [6]. Service providers who...