Abstract:
This paper is based on the newly advanced
cellular technology called Advanced-High Speed Packet Access
plus (HSPA+) or just simply HSPA+. It gives a good
understanding of the possibility of using multiple carriers while
planning radio access network of Universal Mobile
Telecommunications System (UMTS)/HSPA+ using eight
carriers while transmitting in the downlink, and perform a case
study in Addis Ababa City with a selected area. The
UMTS/HSPA+ radio access network planning involves coverage
estimation and capacity evaluation. The coverage estimation is
done with consideration of the real environment information at
its nominal stage to obtain better estimations. The propagation
modeling is done using Cost-Hata model with the inclusion of
taking in to consideration the effect of using multiple carriers.
The maximum of the site counts, by considering the multicarrier effect, based on coverage and capacity analysis is taken
as a final number of required sites. The simulation was
performed using Atoll 3.2 Radio Planning and Optimization
Software to evaluate both the coverage prediction and MonteCarlo simulation, which is needed for capacity estimation for
each service. This simulation software is also used for comparing
the effect of octa-cell based system with the system which
operates on fewer carriers.
