Network Capacity: A Planning Guide

Densification. Efficiency. Spectrum. Three areas to explore for adding capacity in wireless networks. Check out this blog by Dr. Mohamed Hamdy and the related planning guide for an in-depth analysis.

Hamdy-1-blogThink about all the challenges capacity planners must face when it comes to forecasting and planning for efficient mobile networks. Over-dimensioning with too much network capacity is unforgivably wasted cash—while under-dimensioning is a catastrophic revenue loss!

As per the Shannon-Hartley theory, capacity dimensioning is a three-dimensional model. One should address the densification, efficiency and spectrum domains simultaneously to deliver a complete and optimized solution.

CLICK TO TWEET: A planning guide to optimizing networks for capacity with practical field examples.

By selecting the right radio frequency (RF) components and following some best practices tips, your overall networks’ radio capacities are significantly enhanced with minimal costs. To help network planners and operators, CommScope has published “A planning guide to optimizing networks for capacity with practical field examples,” which introduces several RF capacity enhancement tricks. To make it even more practical for users, we also include real-life product examples and guides from CommScope’s wide portfolio.

For example, it’s no secret that most operators around the globe are seeking ways to maximize spectrum. They might turn to small cell deployments over an existing shared macro carrier. As traditional small cells, omni antennas do not support electrical tilting—their signals tend to travel long distances. Eventually, we end up with bad SINR performance at the cell edges.

To address this problem, CommScope has designed an omni antenna with electrical tilt capabilities. We call it the quasi omni antenna. The concept is very simple. It has three directional panel antennas arranged in a triangular prism-like form. These are fed by a single input passing through a built-in three-way splitter. That’s where the name “quasi omni” originates.

For discussion related to densification, efficiency and spectrum, you are invited to download our planning guide to learn from our experience. If you have any questions, please leave a comment.