Ranplan Wireless showcases Ranplan Professional design tool for 5G networks
At 5G North America, Ranplan Wireless is showcasing its flagship design tool, Ranplan Professional. Encompassing a feature set ideally positioned to plan and deploy emerging 5G, multilayer, multi-technology, and densified urban networks, this design tool bridges the gap between indoor and outdoor wireless network design.
As 5G network trials ramp up, and with more deployments scheduled for 2019, Ranplan Professional meets the growing and urgent demand for a new generation of design tools capable of planning 5G networks using the latest simulation and predictive modelling techniques.
Designing and planning next-generation 5G networks presents a variety of technical challenges; in particular, how to design for short range, high frequencies that can still cope with demanding indoor and outdoor coverage and capacity levels. Ranplan Professional offers users a true 3D ray-tracing model covering frequency bands from 100MHz up to 70GHz, supporting 5G spectrum. The versatile design tool also features a device database of over 7,500 up-to-date components for both indoor and outdoor applications.
“The transformative potential of 5G has been widely speculated, offering faster data speeds, increased network reliability, higher capacity and ultra-low latency, with the potential to vastly improve subscriber user quality of experience. The immediate real benefits will be experienced with multimedia applications, VR, Smart Cities, IoT, broadcast services and other applications requiring responsive wireless communications,” said Jason Suplita, VP Americas at Ranplan Wireless. “However, if we do not plan and optimize our networks properly, we will suffer from the same capacity, coverage and critical interference issues which have plagued previous generations of mobile networks. We believe Ranplan Professional will play a significant role in integrating 5G into in-building, and combined in-building and dense urban environments, smart cities and public safety networks.”
Ranplan Professional can simultaneously model both indoor and outdoor environments taking inputs for traditional in-building designs, such as CAD and other image files, and combining these with high-resolution geo-data to produce a hybrid prediction environment. This hybrid environment allows users to easily and accurately plan and simulate the performance of complex coordinated multilayer networks both indoor and out. This insight provides a more accurate picture of overall network, sector and subscriber performance prior to the network being deployed. Additionally, by leveraging advanced 3D modelling, fast and accurate 3D ray-tracing, along with powerful data analysis, Ranplan Professional’s optimization modules help to automate network design by selecting the best location type and output power for antenna placement and correct channel allocation for selected sectors to minimize interference and maximize capacity.
“The arrival of 5G and the drive to deliver smart city initiatives as well as support of the IoT together introduce an entirely new set of complexities,” said Suplita. “For example, as distances shorten with millimeter wave lengths, and as the signals can be disrupted in different ways compared to lower frequency signals by structures and materials, it is important that networks are planned and designed accurately for coverage, capacity and quality of service prior to deployment in order to save time and money.”
According to a recent Ericsson Mobility Report, video consumption is set to increase from 50% of all mobile traffic in 2017 to over 75% by 2023, while the number of IoT devices is projected to reach 1.8 billion in 2023. “With the number of wireless devices and the data consumed by those devices rising significantly over the foreseeable future, mobile operators are focused on densifying their mobile networks by implementing DAS and small cells,” added Suplita. “To do this they need a tool that can plan indoor / outdoor networks in coordination to optimize capacity and coverage, while delivering the best customer quality of experience.”
At 5G North America, Ranplan’s Senior Solutions Consultant, Darren Hart, is participating in a 5G Radio Access panel session entitled ‘Beamforming Challenges and Solutions at 28 GHz and 39 GHz’. Visit Ranplan at 5G North America in Booth G202 to see the latest capabilities of Ranplan Professional 5.0.
About Ranplan Wireless
Ranplan Wireless is an innovative wireless technology company that has developed world leading software tools for outdoor/indoor wireless network planning, design and optimization, using advanced 3D building modelling and radio propagation simulation. The company is at the forefront of research and development for radio propagation, femto/small cell design, automatic RAN optimization and the deployment of complex HetNets. For more information, visit www.ranplanwireless.com.
