CafeTele – Guest Expert – Gaurav Goyal

Atoll- 5G NR-RF Planning Tool

• This webinar will give you a

practical experience with ATOLL
software, to enable you to use
ATOLL efficiently

Date: Friday 6 December 2019

2 AM UTC Speaker : Gaurav Goyal
12/7/19 CafeTele Telecom Training 1
TrainingProgramme
1. Atoll General Concepts

2. Atoll Working Environment

3. Geographic Data

4. RadioData

5. Predictions

6. Prediction Analysis, Reports and Exports

• Atoll is a multi-technology wireless network design and optimisation platform that supports
wireless operators
• throughout the network lifecycle, from initial design to densification and optimisation.
•
• Atoll offers unique capabilities of using both predictions and live network data throughout the
network planning and optimization process.

• Atoll includes access technologies including 5G NR, LTE, NB-IoT, UMTS, GSM, and CDMA.
• Atoll supports the latest technology advances such as massive MIMO, 3D beamforming, and
mmWave propagation
• for the design and roll-out of 5G networks.
Atoll General Concepts(1/2)
Multi-technology tool
5G NR NB-IoT
LTE/LTE-Advanced Pro LoRa, Sigfox, and other LPWA IoT technologies
UMTS/HSPA Wi-Fi
GSM/GPRS/EDGE WiMAX
CDMA2000 1xRTT/EV-DO TD-SCDMA
Microwave Radio Links Backhaul Planning

• 5G Multi-RAT documentavailable
• Possibility to modelGSM,UMTS, LTEand5GNRin the sameAtoll document

• Open, scalable and flexible architecture

• Corestructure +technologymodules(32-bit and64-bit editions) API available
(Application ProgrammingInterface)
• Allows to createadd-ins andmacros
• Allows third-parties to developtools that will becompatiblewith Atoll (suchasACPs,AFPs,Propagationmodels, etc.)
Atoll General Concepts(2/2)
Ergonomic and user-friendly GUI (Graphic User Interface)
Windows-based tool
• Easy copy-paste and import-export of data from-into standardapplications

Flexibility in datamanagement
Possibility to choose what to display, what to filter, etc.

Possibility to add user-defined columns in tables

TrainingProgramme
1. Atoll General Concepts

2. Atoll Working Environment

3. Geographic Data

4. RadioData

5. Predictions

6. Prediction Analysis, Reports and Exports

2. Atoll WorkingEnvironment
How to Create a New Atoll Document

Archive and Refresh in Multi-User Mode

Atoll General GUI

Tabs of the Menu Bar

Toolbars and Explorer

Workspace

Open and Save an Atoll Document

How to Create a New Atoll Document
How to Create a New Atoll Document (1/3)
“File → New...”

“Basic” ways of creating a new Atoll document

From a document template
Availabletemplates
From an existing database

Supportedformats
How to Create a New Atoll Document (2/3)
Atoll documents / ATLfiles
Data are saved in an Atoll document, which is a file with an .ATL extension
ATL files can contain one or several technologies
ATL files can be duplicated, opened under any workstation, and can only be read byAtoll

Working modes
2 working modes with Atoll:
Database
.atl User1
Stand- or Multi-user:
alone:
Archive
.atl .atl User2

Refresh
.atl Useri

Document created from a template Stand-alone document

Document created from an existing database Multi-user document

How to Create a New Atoll Document (3/3)
“Advanced” ways of creating a new project
Via 2 add-ins : “Geo Selector” or “Scenario Manager”
Dedicated interface to easily create a project including radio
and geo data

Geo Selector (SQL Server / Oracle)

Automatically import radio data from the database and geo
data via a .cfg file

Scenario Manager (Oracle Only)

Designed for large-scale networks
Allows users to create “scenarios”, i.e. sets of parameters
that will be loaded from the selected database project
• Site lists, custom fields groups, pre-filtering conditions,
neighbours…
Optimizes data loading and storing by allowing the users to
select a specific area, the “filtering zone” in Atoll, and create
a project focusing on that area only
Archive and Refresh in Multi-User Mode (1/2)
The Atoll document is not connected all the time to the database
Modifications made in the document are not saved in real time in the database
Need to archive your modifications to the database
Need to refresh your Atoll document to get the database’s latest modifications

“Archive” command
Archive and Refresh in Multi-User Mode (2/2)
“Refresh” command

Options if you refresh

while still havingsome
pending changes not
archived
Archive and Refresh in Multi-User Mode (2/2)
Atoll GeneralGUI
Tabs of the Menu Bar (1/9)
Tabsof the Menu Bar(2/9)
Tabs of the Menu Bar (3/9)
Favourite Views : easy navigation from different views on the map
Favourite views contain the map position, zoom level, geographic data set, and optionally the definition
of calculation and focus zones.

Available in the View tab and in the Select a zone, a zoom and maps you want
Window toolbar to display and click on Add to save theview
Tabs of the Menu Bar (4/9)
DTM view: Chicagoprofile

Clutter Classesview:
With transportationvectors

Clutter Heights view: zoom on Chicago City Center

Computation and Focus zones can be stored in Favourite view, but an option must be added to the Atoll.ini
file [FavouriteViews]
UpdateFocusAndComputationZone=1
Tabs of the Menu Bar (5/9)
IFP
Atoll also allows you to allocate resources using Interactive Frequency
Planning (IFP). The IFP enables you to verify the frequency allocation of each
transmitter and interactively improve an existing frequency plan by selecting
the most appropriate channels to assign to individual TRXs. The IFP uses the
installed AFP module to calculate the costs associated with the current and
modified frequency plans.
Tabs of the Menu Bar (5/9)
Calculating path loss matrices can be time and resource intensive
when you are working on larger projects. Consequently, Atoll
offers you the possibility of distributing path loss calculations on
several computers. You can install the distributed calculation
server application on other workstations or on servers. Once the
distributed calculation server application is installed on a
workstation or server, the computer is available for distributed
path loss calculation to other computers on the network.
Tabs of the Menu Bar (6/9)
Find on Map tool: search for a specific object on the map by name or attribute
You need to select an object (Site, Transmitter, Vector…) and a field as a reference
Object selection Attribute selection

Object Transmitterselected In this case, the object will be

searched by name
Tabs of the Menu Bar (7/9)
Search and display an object on the map For the selected field, define
the value, or the name, of the
You can access directly to the parameters of the selected object object you want to display

Display the selected

transmitter on themap Perform directly actions on
the selected object by a
right-click
Tabs of the Menu Bar (8/9)
Advanced filter with the Find on Map
The Find on Map tool now support the " * " wildcard character for replacement of a
single alphanumerical character at the beginning of a text

Copy to Clipboard button

(copy the column “Site”)

This wildcard can only be

used as the first character
of a text object and
cannot be combined with
other wildcards or
operators.
 Tabs of the Menu Bar (9/9)
“Window” and “Help” tabs

Open a new map window for

the activedocument
Atoll Helptopics
Rest default layout

Show Thumbnails
Atoll information
Switch between all windows and version number
opened in theworkspace
Toolbars and Explorer
Toolbars
Radio Planning toolbar Standardtoolbar Map toolbar Vector Editortoolbar

Microwave Link Planningtoolbar Addins toolbar Windows toolbar

“Network” / “Geo” / “Parameters” explorers

Made of folders and visibility boxes
Order between folders can be changed
Context menus available on each folder
• Properties
• Tables
• Additional functionalities
Workspace(1/3)
Possibility to create different tab groups
Workspace (2/3)
Possibility to place your active window anywhere in the workspace
Workspace (3/3)
Auto-hide functionality

Auto-hide
Open and Save an Atoll Document(1/2)
Open an existing Atoll document Save the active Atolldocument
Possibility to open several ATL files in the
same Atoll platform
Open and Save an Atoll Document(2/2)
By default, when you save a copy of an Atoll document (File >Save As) with the following
linked externalised calculation results:
Radio: private path loss matrices, path loss tuning measurement points catalogue files, coverage
prediction numerical results
MW: microwave link profiles

A dialog box allows you to choose from the following options:

Make copies of the externalised calculation results with the new document
Do not retrieve externalised calculation results for the new document

You can define the default option and suppress this dialog box by setting the CopyExternalResults and CopyExternalResultsDialog
options in the [Settings] section of the Atoll.ini file.
The previous options StoreExternPrivLosFilesOnCopy and ConfirmStoreExternPrivLosFilesOnCopy in the [Perfos] section are now
obsolete.
Open and Save an Atoll Document(2/2)
TrainingProgramme
1. Atoll General Concepts

2. Atoll Working Environment

3. Geographic Data

4. RadioData

5. Predictions

6. Prediction Analysis, Reports and Exports

3. GeographicData
Coordinate Systems and Units

Geographic Data Types

Importing a Raster-format Geographic Data File

Importing a Vector-format Geographic Data File

Multi-layer Management

Geographic Data Properties

Online Maps

User Configuration File

Coordinate Systems and Units
“Document→ Properties...”

Projection system
You need to define which projection
system has been used to obtain your
geographic maps*

Display system
You also need to define which Coordinate
System you prefer to use for the Display
in Atoll (used for the sites coordinates,
position of a point on the map (in status
bar), rulers, etc.)

Units system
You then need to define which Units will
be used for the Distances (m, km, miles),
the Heights and the Offsets (m, feet) in
Atoll
*UTM map
UTM
The Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) is a system for
assigning coordinates to locations on the surface of the Earth. Like the
traditional method of latitude and longitude, it is a horizontal position
representation, which means it ignores altitude and treats the earth as a
perfect ellipsoid
Geographic DataTypes
Several different geographic data types can be used in an Atoll document

Examples of geographic data

Digital Terrain Model
Clutter classes
Used in propagation calculation
Clutter heights
Traffic maps
Used in Monte-Carlo simulations and automatic planning features
Population maps Used in statistics and reports
Scanned maps
Online maps
Used for display purposes
Contours, lines and points representing roads, railways or regions
Etc.

Atoll supports 2 different formats for geographic data files

Raster format
• Clutter classes and heights, DTM, images, some traffic and population maps
Vector format
• Polygons, lines and points for display, filtering +some traffic and population maps
Importing a Raster-format Geographic Data File
The raster-format geographic data files you want to import must be represented in the
same projection system as the one defined in your Atoll document

“File → Import”

Choose
“Digital Terrain Model” for a DTM file
“Clutter Classes” for a clutter classes file
“Clutter Heights” for a clutter heights file
“Image or Scan” for a scanned image Etc.
Importing a Vector-format Geographic Data File
When you import a vector-format geographic data file, its coordinate system can be
converted to the one used in your Atoll document

“File → Import”

Coordinate
system
conversion

You need to specify what you will use

Used when your vector file for:
importing a A simple layer in the Geo tab
population
A computation zone
vector file
A focus zone
A population map
Etc.
Multi-layer Management(1/2)
Each geographic data file becomes one layer in the Geo tab
DTM, clutter classes and height, and population maps are listed in dedicated folders
By default, images and vectors appear directly in the Geo explorer, but they can be grouped into
folders

Properties of each geographic data file is accessible from its context menu
“Right-click → Properties”
Multi-layer Management(2/2)
Visibility of geo data depends on the display check boxes and on the display order of each
layer

Priority of geo data in calculations

If for a specific map type (clutter classes, DTM, etc.) you have several files with different resolutions,
you will need to put the one with the highest resolution on top for Atoll to take it into account in
the calculations
Geographic Data Properties (1/5)
Tables of vector maps
Possibility to edit your vector directly from Atoll through its table
Geographic Data Properties (2/5)
Properties of vector maps 3 types of display
Geographic Data Properties (3/5)
Properties of DTM maps
Geographic Data Properties (4/5)
Properties of clutter classes maps
Geographic Data Properties
(5/5)
Properties of clutter heightsmaps

Clutter height information provided in the

status bar
Online Maps
Importing online maps
User Configuration File
User configuration
Possibility to import/export the complete geographic data set from/into a user configuration file
(.geo)
 Telecoms Modeling

12/7/19 CafeTele 61