Planning of GSM-based wireless local access via simulcast distributed antennas over hybrid fiber-coax

This paper describes planning strategies for the deployment of a microcellular network through a simulcast distributed antenna (SDA) architecture over hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) facilities. The cost savings resulting from an improved balance between traffic demand and investment in transmission resource as well as with the decoupling of the coverage and capacity functions in a SDA architecture offers a great deal of flexibility to the network operator. However, it also introduces an added degree of complexity to the planning of these systems. Based on a quasi-static simulator developed as a complement to a previous Canadian GSM-over-HFC technical trial, effective deployment and frequency planning strategies are described for the GSM-via-SDA architecture in line with link performance, capacity and cost criteria