Atoll Microwave

Backhaul Planning & Optimisation Software

Version 3.4.0

Release Notes
New features and other changes introduced in Atoll Microwave 3.4.0 are described below. For more information, refer to the online
help, the Atoll User Manual, the Atoll Administrator Manual, and the Atoll Technical Reference Guide.

Release Note for Build 15641 (3 July 2019)

User Interface
 Atoll now supports Windows Server 2019.
 Atoll now supports Oracle version 18c.
 Atoll now supports feet in addition to meters, kilometers, and miles, as a distance unit. Setting the document properties distance
unit to feet applies to any related calculated values ("inhabitants/sq. ft", "ft per hour", and so on).

Macros
 You can now configure Atoll to start macros from a path that is relative to the Atoll.exe program, instead of an absolute path, by
adding the "RelativePathname" option to the [Macros] section of the Atoll.ini file.

Backhaul Networks

User Interface
 In the Design Summary, the channel bandwidth is now displayed with three decimals.

Release Note for Build 15114 (23 April 2019)

Working Environment

User Interface
 The distance measurement tool can now measure distances using either projected distances (measured between points
projected on a 2D plane) or geographic distances (measured along the surface of the earth using a ellipsoidal-surface method).

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Backhaul Networks

User Interface
 You can now configure Atoll to display a confirmation dialog box when you delete a microwave or non-microwave link by adding
an AskConfirmDeleteLinkOrOTLink option to the [MWLink] section of the Atoll.ini file.
 The link profile is now properly displayed in the Profile Value view when the link contains a repeater.
 You can now configure Atoll to display clutter in the Profile view in grey if the propagation model has clutter disabled by adding
an AlwaysDrawClutters option to the [MWProfile] section of the Atoll.ini file.

Release Note for Build 14255 (27 November 2018)

Working Environment

User Interface
 The toolbar layout can be customised in Atoll. The toolbar customisation is now preserved from one Atoll session to another.
 A scroll bar has been added to the list of transmitters in the point analysis results.
 The Site Lists filters are now available when using the Filter button in the Sites table.

Backhaul Networks

Microwave Radio Equipment

 When importing RAF files, the output power standard is set by default to ETSI.

Microwave Calculations
 Atoll Microwave now supports ITU recommendation 530-17.
 Two k factor values and several frequency bands can be now considered in the LOS Area analysis. The calculated LOS area
shows the pixels where clearance conditions are fulfilled for all criteria.
 It is now possible to define whether to include FKTB in interference or not.
 The Interactive Channel Allocation now offers the option to sort candidate channels either by C/I or by threshold degradation.
 When you run a Connect > To Best Hub command from a site that is too far away from any hubs, a message is now displayed
asking whether to increase the maximum distance.

Release Note for Build 13189 (18 June 2018)

Atoll Live
 The Atoll Live module is now generally available. Atoll Live enables you to use live network measurement data, such as Key
Performance Indicators (KPI) and User Equipment (UE) traces, including MDT traces (Minimisation of Drive Tests), for network
planning and optimisation in Atoll. Atoll Live requires a specific license. Contact Forsk support for more information.
 You can hide all references to the Atoll Live module, KPIs, and UE traces in the user interface by setting the Live option in the
[Licenses] section of the Atoll.ini file.

Working Environment

Supported Operating Systems

 From version 3.4.0, Atoll now supports Windows 2016 Server.
Atoll no longer supports the following versions of Microsoft operating systems:
 Windows XP

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  Windows Vista
 Windows 2003 Server
 Windows 2008 Server (except Windows 2008R2 that is still supported).
For more information on supported operating systems, see the Atoll Administrator Manual.

User Interface
 Atoll now supports hypertext links in data tables for text custom fields that are specifically identified as hypertext fields. This
enables you, for example, to include links to external files, web sites, documents, or images in data tables.
 The Find on Map feature now allows you to sort search results by the search field or a secondary field depending on the searched
elements. You can switch between an alphanumerical-sorted or a numerical-sorted display.
 The Group feature now includes a search capability in order to easily find the fields by which you want to group data objects
from the Available fields list.
 Atoll now automatically adds scroll bars to dialog boxes that are too large for the current screen resolution.
 Objects in the Site Explorer are now sorted by alphanumerical order.
 Due to the addition of new fields to the Sites data table, some objects or predictions might be displayed with the wrong colours,
in particular when data from custom fields is displayed for the first time a document is opened in Atoll 3.4. If this occurs, you
must reconfigure the colours in the Display properties of the object.
 Atoll no longer allows leading and trailing spaces in text fields such as names, custom fields, and so on. By default, space
characters at the beginning and at the end of text fields are automatically trimmed. This behaviour can be modified by setting
the TrimTextFields option in the [Validation] section of the Atoll.ini file. A macro is available to verify that existing text fields in
the database comply with this rule.
 Before recalculating existing predictions, Atoll now displays a warning dialog box in the following situations:
 If the Atoll document was saved in a different location (Save As) and the pathloss data folder location has changed.
 If you are using the Multi-storey Predictions and are recalculating a multi-storey prediction outside of a multi-storey context
(for example, if you select Calculate, Force Calculation, or press F7). You should recalculate multi-storey predictions by using
the commands provided by the Multi-storey Predictions add-in.
 Sites now have an additional Alias field, which can be used as secondary name. To display the alias along with the site name in
the site explorer, right-click the Sites folder and select Show Alias.

 For standalone Atoll documents, if you previously used a custom field for aliases,
open the Sites data table and copy the contents of the custom field column into the
new Alias column.
For Atoll documents that are connected to a database, no action is required.

Add-ins and Macros

 The Cell Size Calculation Add-in is now included in the Atoll setup and can be installed at the same time as Atoll.

Database
 After a database upgrade or a data refresh, a database integrity check can be run automatically and silently. To enable this
feature, set the ControlIntegrity option in the [Refresh] section of the atoll.ini file.
 The following text fields have been increased to allow for longer names:
 Custom field names: 30 characters.
 Site names: 60 characters.
 Microwave link names: 140 characters.
 Several improvements have been made to the Atoll Management Console:
 You can now add NB-IoT as a technology with the View/Add Technologies command.
 User management is now fully supported with SQL Server databases.
 In the User Management dialog box, you can now select multiple projects as well as multiple users before changing access
rights.

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  For Oracle databases, you can now select multiple databases before applying the Upgrade Database command. The results
of the upgrade are displayed in a log window.
 After adding a custom field to a data table, you can perform an Install/Repair command on the database to propagate the
changes.

Geo Data
 When importing .TAB files that contain colour data produced by third-party tools, Atoll now applies and displays those colours.

Backhaul Networks

Microwave Links
 Antenna azimuth and tilt values, automatically calculated by Atoll, are now displayed in the Microwave Links table. These values
cannot be edited and they are not stored into the database.
 The formulas that apply cross-polar discrimination (XPD) outage from section 4 of the IUT-R P.530 method are now applied only
if, on the same link, at least two cross-polarised channels are present, where the second channel is either co-channel or adjacent
to the first.
 Channel Arrangement display properties are now saved in the Atoll document and the CFG file.

Antennas and Equipment

 You can now define the antenna half-power beamwidth in the antenna property dialogue. The value is automatically calculated
from the antenna pattern when importing antenna files.
 A new setting in the hub properties, Radio settings shared with all the links, allows you to specify that the radio equipment for
each link connected to the hub is defined by the hub. If the option is disabled, you can specify different radio settings for each
link.
 You can now specify detailed height constraints for the automatic optimisation of microwave antenna heights.

Reports
 The antenna beamwidth can be displayed in link analysis reports and link budgets. If not defined in the antenna properties, Atoll
automatically calculates the antenna beamwidth based on the antenna pattern (co-polar section of the Horizontal polarisation
- Horizontal plane).

Calculations
 Line-of-sight area calculations can now be limited to the computation zone.
 In interference calculation, you can now ignore interference that is generated by cross-polarisation interference cancelling on
the same microwave link.
 By setting the UseFktb332 option in the [MWCalculations] section of the Atoll.ini file, you can consider the radio effective
bandwidth instead of the channel bandwidth when calculating the thermal noise.

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Atoll Microwave 3.4.0 Release Notes
Release: AT340_RNM_E4 (July 2019)
© Copyright 1997-2019 Forsk. All Rights Reserved.
Published by:
Forsk
7 rue des Briquetiers
31700 Blagnac, France
Tel: +33 562 747 210
Fax: +33 562 747 211
www.forsk.com
The software described in this document is provided under a licence agreement. The software may only be used or copied under the terms and conditions
of the licence agreement. No part of the contents of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written
permission from the publisher.
The product or brand names mentioned in this document are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective registering parties.
Third party services that are not part of Atoll are governed by the terms and conditions of their respective providers, which are subject to change without
notice.
The publisher has taken care in the preparation of this document, but makes no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assumes no responsibility
for errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the use of the information
contained herein.

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Fax: +33 562 747 211 Fax: +1 312 674 4847 Tel: +86 20 8553 8938 Fax: +86 20 8553 8285

AT340_RNM_E4 www.forsk.com July 2019

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