Nortel Meridian Companion User manual

Meridian 1
Meridian Companion
Site Planning Reference Manual
Document Number: 553-3601-106
Document Release: Standard 2.00
Date: September 1996
Copyright @ 1996—1999 Nortel Networks, All Rights Reserved
Printed in Canada
NORTEL NETWORKS CONFIDENTIAL
The information contained herein is the property of Nortel Networks and is strictly confidential. Except as
expressly authorized in writing by Nortel Networks, the holder shall keep all information contained herein
confidential, shall disclose the information only to its employees with a need to know, and shall protect the
information, in whole or in part, from disclosure and dissemination to third parties with the same degree of
care it uses to protect its own confidential information, but with no less than reasonable care. Except as
expressly authorized in writing by Nortel Networks, the holder is granted no rights to use the information
contained herein.
Meridian 1, SL-1, and Companion are trademarks of Nortel Networks Corporation.
Meridian Companion Site Planning Reference Manual
NOTICE: Notwithstanding any explicit confidentiality or proprietary markings to the contrary, the
information contained in this document has been reviewed and approved for public disclosure
by Nortel. However, the access to, use and disclosure of this document and the information
contained therein continue to be subject to copyright and other restrictions, conditions and
limitations as detailed in the Terms of Use. (http://www.nortel.com/help/legal/index.html)

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Meridian Companion Site Planning Reference Manual
Contents
About this manual ....................................................1
Companion system overview ..................................3
Introduction to the Companion system......................................3
Base Stations............................................................................5
Radios and antennas .............................................................................5
Base Station location ...............................................9
Base Station installation guidelines...........................................9
Installing multiple Base Stations in a cell center .................................. 11
Companion Deployment Tool ................................13
Using the CDT.........................................................................13
CDT components.................................................................................14
How the CDT works............................................................................. 14
Interpreting the portable’s tones...........................................................16
Conducting a CDT operational check .....................................17
Cell boundary values...............................................................18
Using the CDT to determine cell boundaries..........................19

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Site planning basics...............................................21
The basics of planning a site..................................................21
Site planning prerequisites.....................................................22
Required site information........................................................ 22
Labeling a floor plan...............................................................24
Cell center location................................................................. 26
Covering outdoor areas........................................................................26
Covering a single floor indoor area.......................................................29
Single-floor coverage techniques .........................................................31
Determining the number of Base Stations per cell.................37
Special cases .......................................................................................38
Reviewing your work...............................................................41
Checking system capacity....................................................................41
Reviewing with the customer................................................................41
Providing floor plan information............................................................42
Providing provisioning record information.............................................42
Planning a Sample Site..........................................43
Using what you learned..........................................................43
Sample Site: Site information.................................................43
Sample Site: Indoor cell center location.................................45
Sample Site: Determining the number of Base Stations per cell
48
Sample Site: Reviewing your work .........................................53
Example outdoor cell center location...................................... 54

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Meridian Companion Site Planning Reference Manual
Planning complex sites ......................................... 57
Planning a multi-floor coverage area...................................... 57
Atriums................................................................................................. 57
High-rise buildings ............................................................................... 58
Differing floor areas.............................................................................. 61
Planning an area of high portable density.............................. 63
Example of a high portable density area.............................................. 64
Planning where there is an existing Companion system........ 66
Adjacent systems................................................................................. 66
Overlapping systems ........................................................................... 66
Planning multiple systems...................................................... 67
Parameters affecting multiple systems................................................. 67
System names ..................................................................................... 68
Guidelines............................................................................................ 68
Planning for multiple systems .............................................................. 69
Examples of four types of multiple systems......................................... 70
Appendix A: Derivation of traffic procedure........ 85
Derivation of traffic procedure ................................................ 85
Basic traffic procedure ......................................................................... 85
Detailed traffic procedure..................................................................... 86
Appendix B: Using indoor external antennas .....89
Selecting the appropriate indoor antenna .............................. 89
Simulating indoor external antennas with the CDT................ 91
Using coaxial cable and an external antenna ...................................... 91
Changing the cell boundary value........................................................ 91
Appendix C: Fading ...............................................93
Fading..................................................................................... 93

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Appendix D: Key planning concepts....................95
Key planning concepts............................................................95
Synchronization......................................................................95
Power control.......................................................................... 96
Portables...............................................................................................96
Base Stations .......................................................................................96
Optimizing power control......................................................................97
Base Station and cell relationships.........................................97
Auto administration...............................................................................97
Portable originated calls......................................................... 98
Optimizing portable originated calls......................................................99
System originated call ............................................................99
System..................................................................................................99
Portable ................................................................................................99
Optimizing system originated calls .....................................................100
Hand-off................................................................................100
Optimizing hand-off ............................................................................101

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Meridian Companion Site Planning Reference Manual
About this manual
This manual is used by the Companion site planner to plan and install the best
possible Companion system for the site.
For the basics of Companion site planning, refer to yourGuide to Site Planning.

Page 2 of 102 About this manual
553-3601-106 Standard 2.00 September 1996
1

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Meridian Companion Site Planning Reference Manual
Companion system overview
Introduction to the Companion system
The Companion system allows you to make and receive calls throughout your
site using a wireless telephone.
As shown in Figure 1, the basic Companion system consists of a Controller,
Base Stations and a portable for each user. The Controller provides the
connection between the external telephone system, using access lines, and the
Companion system, using ports. Base Stations relay call information between
the Controller and portables. Portables are wireless telephones.
Figure 1 : The basic Companion System
Controller
access lines
cell center
portable
Base Station
ports
cell
cell
cell link

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553-3601-106 Standard 2.00 September 1996
As shown in Figure 2, the coverage area is the part of the site where the
customer wants to use their Companion system. The coverage area can be
indoors and outdoors.
Figure 2 : Coverage terminology
When planning a site for coverage by a Companion system, the outermost
points from the center of the coverage area are critical points. These points
may be difficult to provide radio coverage for so are covered first when
planning a site.
Coverage is provided by grouping Base Stations into cell centers throughout
the coverage area. A cell center provides telephone coverage to a cell. The
point where coverage is no longer provided by the cell center is the cell
boundary. The distance from the cell center to the cell boundary is the range.
The radio communication between a portable and BaseStation is a link. When
a user walksfrom one cell into another,the link is transferred to a Base Station
in that cell by a hand-off between the two Base Stations. Any portable
registered to the system can roam, because it can make or receive calls in any
cell.
cell center
critical point
coverage area
coverage
not
required
coverage
not
required
cell boundary
range
1