Rec. ITU-R M.

1651 1

RECOMMENDATION ITU-R M.1651*

A method for assessing the required spectrum for broadband

nomadic wireless access systems including radio local
area networks1 using the 5 GHz band
(Questions ITU-R 212/8 and ITU-R 142/9)
(2003)

Summary

This Recommendation provides a method for assessing the required spectrum for broadband
nomadic wireless access (NWA) systems including radio local area networks (RLANs). Annex 1
gives a general description of RLANs, the deployment scenarios, an overview of the method for
estimating the required spectrum as well as an example calculation in the 5 GHz band.

The ITU Radiocommunication Assembly,

considering

a) that there is a need to estimate the actual spectrum requirement for broadband nomadic
wireless access (NWA) systems, including radio local area networks (RLANs), used in various
environments;

b) that Recommendation ITU-R M.1390, which is used to calculate the spectrum requirement
for the IMT-2000 terrestrial component, would be a suitable basis for the development of a new
method as stated in considering a),

recommends

1 that the method described in Annex 1 should be used as guidance to estimate the spectrum
requirement for broadband NWA systems, including RLANs, using the 5 GHz band.

NOTE 1 – Abbreviations used in this Recommendation are given in Table 1.

NOTE 2 – Reference ITU Recommendations are given in Table 2.

* This Recommendation was jointly developed by Radiocommunication Study Groups 8 and 9, and future
revisions should be undertaken jointly.

1 In this Recommendation radio local area network (RLAN) is as described in Recommendation

ITU-R M.1450.

NOTE – The United States of America does not agree with this Recommendation and therefore reserves its
position on it.
2 Rec. ITU-R M.1651

TABLE 1

Abbreviations used in this Recommendation

AP Access point
BPSK Binary phase shift keying
DLC Data link control
HDTV High definition television
HiMM High speed interactive multimedia
HMM High speed multimedia
IP Internet protocol
LAN Local area network
MAC Medium access control
MiMM Medium speed interactive multimedia
MMM Medium speed multimedia
MT Mobile terminal
NWA Nomadic wireless access
PDA Personal digital assistant
PER Packet error rate
PHY Physical (layer)
RLAN Radio local area network
QAM Quadrature amplitude modulation
QoS Quality of service
QPSK Quaternary phase shift keying
SDTV Standard definition television
VCR Video cassette recorder
WAS Wireless access systems
VHiMM Very high speed interactive multimedia
VHMM Very high speed multimedia

TABLE 2

Reference ITU Recommendations

Recommendation ITU-R P.1238 Propagation data and prediction methods for the planning of indoor
radiocommunication systems and radio local area networks in the
frequency range 900 MHz to 100 GHz
Recommendation ITU-R M.1390 Methodology for the calculation of IMT-2000 terrestrial spectrum
requirements
Recommendation ITU-R M.1450 Characteristics of broadband radio local area networks
ITU-T Recommendation I.356 B-ISDN ATM layer cell transfer performance
 Rec. ITU-R M.1651 3

Annex 1

A method for assessing the required spectrum for broadband

NWA systems including RLANs using the 5 GHz band

1 Background

A key condition for market acceptance of NWA systems is the availability of a sufficient amount of
spectrum to allow for a high-quality user experience in the presence of other uncoordinated users. A
method for estimating the amount of spectrum required to support forecast market penetration, user
densities and scenarios and the kind of traffic they generate is therefore needed.

A suitable basis for a method of estimating spectrum requirements for NWA systems is available in
Recommendation ITU-R M.1390, which was developed for the calculation of IMT-2000 terrestrial
spectrum requirements. In fact, the scope of this Recommendation states that the method can be
used for other than public land mobile radio systems, and is applicable to both circuit-switched and
packet-switch based radio technologies. An example calculation is included as Appendix 1 to
illustrate how the method may be implemented. In this example, RLANs are used as a represen-
tative model of NWA systems.

Section 2 provides a short introduction of NWA systems and introduces user scenarios. Section 3
reviews the methodology. Section 4 then explains the implementation of the methodology for
RLAN spectrum requirements. Finally, an example calculation is supplied in Appendix 1.

2 Introduction to NWA systems

NWA includes broadband RLANs, which are described in Recommendation ITU-R M.1450.
Typical applications include public and private wireless access offered in homes, schools, hospitals,
hotels, conference centres, airports, shopping centres, etc. Administrations, through national rules
and policies, may either choose to license these devices or to exempt these devices from licensing.

Office or indoor environments generally have low e.i.r.p.s and very small radio cells on the order
of 30 m radius or less. Outdoor environments generally use higher e.i.r.p.s and have larger radii.

Sufficient spectrum, among other factors, is a necessary condition to allow satisfactory performance
in the presence of other uncoordinated users and is one of the key conditions for market acceptance
for these kinds of systems.

Most 5 GHz air interface standards have an adaptive feature whereby the physical layer (PHY)
mode may automatically adapt to the radio path characteristics. Table 3 shows the PHY modes and
typical throughput for each mode. This allows most efficient use of the radio channel, but has the
consequence of service area differences: the highest bit rate is only available over a fraction of the
total area coverage of the lowest bit rate for any specific access point (AP). Hence in the detailed
calculations an averaging over the service area is applied. Spectral efficiency in bit/s/Hz as
delivered to the network layer is a function of the throughput achievable in the medium access
4 Rec. ITU-R M.1651

control (MAC) layer. The different 5 GHz RLAN standards considered here employ different MAC
strategies and therefore different network layer throughput. For the spectrum requirements
calculation, the best achievable throughput has been assumed, as per Table 3. This gives a lower
limit for the required spectrum: lower MAC throughput results in a greater amount of spectrum
required in any given environment needed to support the same aggregate user traffic.

TABLE 3

Example RLAN MAC throughput with 1 500 byte packets

Maximum throughput
PHY mode Coding
(Mbit/s) rate Throughput
Mbit/s
(%)
6 1/2 4.6 77
9 3/4 6.9 77
12 1/2 9.2 77
18 3/4 13.9 77
27 9/16 21 77
36 3/4 28 77
54 3/4 42 77

2.1 Recommendation ITU-R M.1390 terminology in the RLAN context

RLANs can be considered a complement to IMT-2000 systems, providing higher data rates and
system throughput in geographically limited areas (range of the order of 100 m). Multimedia
services are defined in Recommendation ITU-R M.1390 as MMM, HMM and HiMM with user bit
rates from 64 kbit/s to 384 kbit/s and up to 2 000 kbit/s. The bandwidth demands of true,
high-resolution multimedia communications will require bit rates of the order of 10 Mbit/s and
above. RLANs can achieve much higher data rates and system capacity. These data rates can be
handled by RLAN standards in the 5 GHz band for several users simultaneously within smaller
cells than IMT-2000 systems, and normally inside buildings.

RLANs are typically deployed in a cellular structure, however not with contiguous area coverage
like cellular systems. Even if the RLAN coverage area is limited, the entire spectrum may be
needed due to local traffic demands.

2.2 Application environments

Typical applications can be found in Recommendation ITU-R M.1450. The environments analysed
here are:
– corporate office environment;
– public access environment;
 Rec. ITU-R M.1651 5

– wide area access environment;

– home environment.

Each of the environments is given attributes in the sections below which should be used in the
calculations.

2.2.1 Corporate office environment

RLANs can be used for the replacement or extension of wired LANs. Typical cases could be
temporary office installations or installations into spaces where building characteristics or
protection prohibit the extensive use of cabling. More recently the sheer convenience of untethered
connection to the LAN is proving very attractive to users of laptop PCs, and RLAN products are
experiencing high growth rates.

Terminals typically connected to infrastructure networks are designed for fixed use. Such a terminal
could, for example, be a workstation, a PC or any other purpose-specific terminal. The applications
are typically broadband applications. In this scenario the user device is mostly stationary and the
main benefit derived from RLANs is the wireless convenience. Thus, it will be a most likely
scenario that RLANs should provide or approximate fixed network QoS to a stationary user. The
user should not be able to notice the difference between using the wireless system and a wired
system.

TABLE 4

Characteristics of an office environment

Attribute Requirement
End-user equipment Portable PC or workstation, personal digital assistant
(PDA)
Usage environment Corporate offices, etc.
Range Up to 50 m for indoor systems
QoS expectation Basically same as fixed installation
Applications Basically same as fixed installation
Mobility Limited
Coverage Continuous within the workspace

2.2.2 Public access environment

Typical places for using the RLAN system outside an office room would be meeting rooms, dining
facilities, patient wards, classrooms and auditoria, as well as waiting rooms/halls. A user may also
be able to access the public network through base stations installed in locations such as railway
stations, airports and shopping centres. In some cases, connectivity has to be maintained while the
user is in transit from one location to another.

The terminals in this scenario are movable. A typical terminal could be built around a laptop
computer and a RLAN card. The mobile node will in many cases be a battery driven device so that
an economic consumption of power is required.
6 Rec. ITU-R M.1651

Public wireless access applications are in principle similar to office environment applications.
However, the users can be located in a wider variety of building types and the ranges are typically
greater than in office environments. Furthermore, there may be uncoordinated networks with
different owners, which can interfere with a given terminal.

The QoS expected from the RLAN system in this scenario could be somewhat lower than the QoS
expected of an office or home system. The user can be assumed to accept that a small loss in QoS is
the price paid for the mobility gained. For example, the connection might tolerate a short
interruption because of a cell change (resulting in momentary disturbance in the video picture), and
the required video picture size and definition for a person temporarily in the access area is also
lower.

TABLE 5

Characteristics of a public access environment

Attribute Requirement
End-user equipment Portable computer, e.g. notebook or PDA
Usage environment Offices, schools, hospitals, airports, railway stations,
shopping centres, etc.
Range Up to 50 m for indoor systems Up to 150 m for
outdoor systems
QoS expectation Somewhat lower than desktop
Applications Similar to desktop
Mobility Limited
Coverage Continuous within defined area, e.g. airport hall

It is envisaged by some administrations that RLANs could be used for public access. User devices
for such public access should have the same air interface as those for private access. A user device,
therefore, can access both public and private networks.

2.2.3 Wide area access environment

It is envisaged by some administrations that WAS/RLANs could be used for wireless access on
a wide area coverage basis. The terminals for such access should have the same air interface as
indoor WAS/RLAN devices, but would likely use modified antennas and MAC protocols that allow
greater range and deal with the longer propagation and multiple access delays resulting from
outdoor operation. Sectoral or high-gain omnidirectional antennas, or repeaters, could be used to
create micro-cells in which operational ranges of 300 to 3 000 m are possible, depending on the
outdoor propagation conditions. In such deployments, the antennas are usually highly directive and
are oriented toward a central AP.
 Rec. ITU-R M.1651 7

The applications are classified as nomadic since the terminals are capable of being moved from
location to location. Some examples of nomadic applications are the provisioning of services to
small transient businesses operating from industrial parks, or the linkage of several buildings in
close proximity to each other to form a “campus” wireless network.

TABLE 6

Characteristics of wide area access environment

Attribute Requirement
End-user equipment Desktop and laptop computer, home entertainment
centre, small office network
Usage environment Inter-building, industrial parks (campus) and
communities
Range 300 to 3 000 m
QoS expectation Basically same as a wireline installation
Applications Basically same as a wireline installation
Mobility Limited
Coverage Dependent on outdoor environment and restricted to
the range of cell

2.2.4 Home environment

A home network generally covers a much smaller area than either factory or office environments.
The rooms tend to be smaller when compared to work environments and have more
compartmentalized structure (storage spaces and en-suites). In the home environment, many
appliances, e.g. PC laptop, printer/fax machines, security systems, home appliances, digital
HDTV/SDTV sets, digital video cassette recorder (VCR), speakers and more could be linked in
various ways. A typical scenario would be:
– An entertainment cluster (video and sound) located in the living room transmitting to
television sets located in the living room, kitchen and bedroom. The wireless link provides
a “bridge” between the clusters, avoiding the use of cable.
– A music system in the living room transmitting to speakers located in the living room,
bedroom or dining room.
– Security features outside the home such as wireless security camera or remote sensors.
These could either be located on the external walls of the property or at the boundary wall,
or a remote building such as a garage or recreation facility.
– RLAN allowing sharing of home computer resources and sharing of Internet access
between several computers or PDAs for simultaneous use by several family members.

From the above, it is obvious that the domestic network should allow access to external networks,
e.g. digital television or be capable of working with no external links, e.g. a music system with
remote speakers.
8 Rec. ITU-R M.1651

The home network is expected to require streaming video with high QoS, thus requiring intensive
use of a high bit-rate channel.

TABLE 7
Characteristics of a home environment

Attribute Requirement
End-user equipment Personal computer, television, entertainment cluster, security
systems, PDA, etc.
Usage environment Domestic premises, i.e. small rooms, two or several floors with
high attenuation
Range Up to 15 m
QoS expectation Consistent with real-time multimedia services
Applications Real-time multimedia, World Wide Web applications
Mobility Limited
Coverage Continuous within premises

3 Method overview
The basis of methodology is to determine the individual spectrum requirements for all
representative combinations of specific environments and services, Fes, in a given geographical area,
and to combine the set of individual spectrum requirements Fes together into a total spectrum
requirement estimate, Fe. Hence the spectrum required, Fe (MHz) for a certain environment is:
Fe = ∑ Fes = ∑ Tes /Ses (1)

where “e” and “s” are subscripts denoting dependency on environments and services respectively,
and,
Fe : spectrum requirement for environment “e” (MHz)
Tes : traffic/cell for service “s” in environment “e” (Mbit/s/cell)
Ses : system capability (Mbit/s/MHz/cell).
The spectrum requirement Fe should then be rounded up to an integer multiple of the assumed
channel bandwidth.
Therefore, Fe is the total required spectrum as a weighted summation of coexisting individual Fes for
the environment “e” and its services “s” considered relevant. Equation (1) addresses packet-
switched services and includes consideration for traffic asymmetry in the uplink and downlink
directions. The calculations, parameters, and definition of inputs within the method are divided into
four categories and serve to group similar aspects of the method into sub-units:
A: geographic considerations;
B: market and traffic considerations;
C: technical and system considerations;
D: spectrum results considerations.
 Rec. ITU-R M.1651 9

In the 5 GHz band there is also a need to consider sharing with other services defined in the Radio
Regulations frequency allocations. The calculation result using the method may therefore need to be
augmented because of the sharing scenario.
RLANs will, for the most part, be used for Internet-type traffic except for when transmitting high
quality video streams. Therefore the packet communications model is appropriate rather than the
circuit-switched model, which dominates in the IMT-2000 estimate. The packet communications
model will be accounted for by an activity factor (Step B5) where the fraction of the time in which
the resource is used must be estimated for the service in each environment.
Note that the method assumes a centralized controller architecture; for an ad hoc network
modifications to the method may be necessary.

4 Method implementation for NWA

4.1 Geographic and environment scenarios (Step A)

4.1.1 Application environments

The environments are chosen to determine spectrum requirements which are typically the most
intensive in terms of data rate, user density and activity ratio. The common denominator of these
environments is the need to support multimedia services.
The environments for analysis are:
– corporate office environment;
– public access environment;
– wide area access environment;
– home environment.
Each of the environments is given attributes that are used in the calculations.
Cell geometry and size should represent typical layout installations for RLANs in each
environment, where the cells (or APs) may be uncoordinated. All are assumed to be stand-alone
networks under the control of one owner, but in the net system capability calculations the
co-channel interference from neighbours should be taken into account (Step C). The actual area
served with a given reliability appears in the system capability calculations because it is determined
largely by interference, and may differ from the planned AP layout because of the propagation
scenario.

A1 Environment type
Select “e” – environment type, i.e. corporate, public, wide area or home; perform a separate
calculation for each environment.

A2 Select direction of propagation

The direction is either uplink (from the mobile terminal to the AP), or downlink (from the AP to the
MT). The traffic and spectrum figures in Steps A2 through D1 are calculated separately for uplink
and downlink directions because of the traffic asymmetry in some services. The spectrum required
for any Fes is the sum of the requirement for both directions.
10 Rec. ITU-R M.1651

A3 Establish representative cell geometry (m)

The typical cell geometry for each environment, based on system capability.

A4 Calculate Cell_areae (m2)

The typical cell area covered by the cell (assumed to be circular).

4.2 Market and traffic (Step B)

B1 Select “s”
“s” – service application type: select service type (e.g. those listed in Table 8).

4.2.1 Users per cell (Steps B2-B4)

The penetration rate for the environments must be defined in order to calculate the number of users
in a cell. The penetration rate could vary for each environment. A cell is considered to be the area
served by one AP.

B2 Area_per_Usere (m2)
This is the area per user in the given environment “e”.

B3 Establish Penetration_Ratees (%)

This is the estimated penetration in the environment.

B4 Calculate users/Celles (users)

The number of users per cell can now be obtained as:
Users/Celles = Penetration_Ratees · Cell_Areae/Area_per_Usere

4.2.2 Traffic and services (Steps B5-B8)

The services that are envisaged for NWA are given in Table 8, with the parameter values that have
been used in the example calculation in Appendix 1. In order to simplify the calculations, the
individual services have been grouped into a reduced number of categories MiMM, HMM, HiMM,
VHMM and VHiMM.

TABLE 8
Example application data rates

Average data Peak/ Peak data

Main link
Application rate average QoS rate
direction
(Mbit/s) ratio (Mbit/s)
MiMM (medium speed interactive multimedia)
E-mail Up or down 1.00 2,0 2.00
Videoconference Up and down 4.00 1,0 Yes 4.00
Control Up and down 2.00 1,5 3.00
Voice Up and down 0.03 1,0 Yes 0.03
 Rec. ITU-R M.1651 11

TABLE 8 (end)

Average data Peak/ Peak data

Main link
Application rate average QoS rate
direction
(Mbit/s) ratio (Mbit/s)
HMM (high speed multimedia)
Web browsing Down 2.00 3.0 6.00
File transfer Up or down 2.00 5.0 10.00
Vidéosurveillance Amont 2.00 1.0 2.00
HiMM (high speed interactive multimedia)
Web hosting Up and down 6.00 1.0 6.00
Client server Up and down 3.00 2.7 8.00
VHMM (very high speed multimedia)
Spooling video Up or down 10.00 2.0 20.00
Streaming video Up or down 6.00 2.0 Yes 12.00
VHiMM (very high speed interactive multimedia)
Multiplayer game Up and down 5.00 3.0 Yes 15.00

B5 Establish traffic parameters

For each service “s”, in each environment “e”, the following parameters must be established:

– Busy_Hour_Session_Attemptses (sessions in busy hour): the average number of attempts

during busy hour;

– Session_Durationes (s): the mean actual duration of the session during the busy hour;

– Activity_Factores (dimensionless): the fraction of time a user is active during session.

B6 Calculate Traffic/Useres (session-seconds)

The traffic per user can now be calculated as:

Traffic/Useres = Busy_Hour_Session_Attemptses · Session_Durationes · Activity_Factores

B7 Calculate Offered_Traffic/Celles (session-seconds)

The total traffic issued in a given cell of environment “e” for service “s” during the busy hour:

Offered_Traffic/Celles = Traffic/Useres · Users/Celles

B8 QoS factor

QoS is accounted for by the system capability (Step C), and the factor is set to one.
12 Rec. ITU-R M.1651

4.3 System capacity (Step C)

The system capacity reflects the average achievable user-data rate (excluding overhead), normalized
to bandwidth and cell, over an entire RLAN deployment (a number of cells).

The spectrum resources and efficiency mainly determine the capacity in terms of bit/s/deployment
of a RLAN. As previously noted, a system with central controller is assumed in this study. The
dominant factors are the number of available RF channels, the bit rate per RF channel,
the frequency reuse factor and the loading of the channels from other networks operating at the
same channels within the radio range.

The actual capacity of a system further depends on the protocol overhead, on the ratio between
protocol overhead and traffic payload size and on the effective channel isolation. Note that the net
system capability (given as Mbit/s/MHz/cell) reflects the estimated average user-data rate attainable
over a deployment within a given geographical area.

Throughput relative to PHY mode for the example calculation in Appendix 1

Table 3 gives the throughput above the data link control (DLC) using a link with the different PHY
modes. The effective total user data rate on top of the DLC varies from 4.6 Mbit/s to 27.7 Mbit/s
(excluding the optional 54 Mbit/s mode) per link when C/(N + I) goes from some 8 dB to above 21
dB, depending on the actual radio propagation and interference situation.

In the example calculation of net system capability in Appendix 1 the throughput value 70% is used
to include margins when more MTs are used. Clearly the use of a system with lower MAC
efficiency would lead to an increase in spectrum requirements.

Frequency reuse and interference

The C/I requirement for each PHY mode and PER limits the frequency reuse in a high capacity
environment. The link adaptation increases the average bit rate in a cell, since a relevant PHY mode
can be selected depending on path loss to the wanted MT, i.e. carrier power C, and the co-channel
interference, I. Typically a frequency reuse factor, FR, in the range of 3 to 5, is necessary for the
corporate, home and public environments when a non-continuous coverage is assumed. However, in
certain circumstances a much higher reuse factor (e.g. around 12) may be necessary. Thus, we
assume that the AP to co-channel AP separation, SepAPco, can be determined from the AP-to-AP
separation, SepAP, in a given layout. A simplified (and optimistic) expression is then given by:

SepAPco = SepAP ⋅ FR 0.5 m

Path-loss models

In the corporate environment the path-loss model in Recommendation ITU-R P.1238 is used in the
example calculation. The distance dependent path loss, basic transmission loss, Lb, is expressed as:

Lb = − 28 + N log10 (d ) + Lw + 20 log10 ( f ) dB
 Rec. ITU-R M.1651 13

where:

d: distance (m)

f: carrier frequency (MHz)

N: frequency dependent distance power loss coefficient

Lw: additional wall attenuation.

For frequencies around 5 GHz, N = 28. The same model is used in the home environment. In the
outdoor environment a path-loss model based on linear attenuation is used, which is a suitable
model when no additional wall loss is considered. This model then describes the propagation
situation in open halls, city squares, or within a lightly blocked (by trees) neighbourhood. The
calculation is given by:

Lb = − 28 + 20 log10 (d ) + α ⋅ d + 20 log10 ( f ) dB

where α is a linear attenuation factor (dB/m).

4.3.1 QoS, transfer latency and transfer delay variance

When operating in a more or less stationary environment, NWAs shall be able to maintain the
values of data rate and QoS established at the connection set up. For the applicable QoS parameters,
see ITU-T Recommendation I.356.

QoS parameters such as transfer delay and delay variance have an impact on the total throughput
when priority and MAC scheduling is fully taken into account. However, to avoid unnecessary
complications, the calculations use simple average and peak rates for the variety of applications.

4.3.2 Traffic (bit rate) per cell (Steps C1-C3)

C1 Number of Service_Channels/Celles

The number of Service_Channels/Celles required for carrying Offered_Traffic_Celles. In view of the

QoS deliberations above, it is assumed that all the available (offered) traffic according to Step B7
will be carried by the network. Equating the offered traffic with the number of service channels
(Step C1) would furthermore correspond to a perfect scheduling of the traffic, where all the
different service types are arranged into the appropriate MAC format without any overhead. If QoS
is accounted for, then the number of service channels must be increased to account for blocking and
queuing, for example.

When converting the offered traffic (Step B7) into service channels (Step C1), account is taken of
the fact that the traffic streams must be mapped onto integer numbers of PHY layer packets,
however. This corresponds to a marginal increase in overhead. Since the packet lengths of the
standards in Recommendation ITU-R M.1450 vary (54-1 500 bytes for the standards considered), a
simple way of accounting for the RLAN packet transmission in general is to approximate the
offered traffic to the nearest higher (first) decimal to obtain the number of serving channels. Hence
the latter is almost equal to the offered traffic.

Note that increasing the number of service channels would increase the spectrum requirements.
14 Rec. ITU-R M.1651

C2 Determine Service_Channel_Bit_Ratees (Mbit/s)

The Service_Channel_Bit_Ratees needed to carry Net_User_Bit_Ratees, i.e. the user data rate of a
service “s”. Due to modularity of the bit rate of the service channel (e.g. the PHY modes in
Table 3), it is possible that the Service_Channel_Bit_Ratees, might be equal to or greater than the
corresponding Net_User_Bit_Ratees (e.g. the application data rate given for a service class in
Table 8). A service characterized by a peak rate of 4 Mbit/s, for example, would require the
6 Mbit/s PHY mode.

C3 Traffic/cell Tes (Mbit/s/cell)

The traffic (bit rate for each service “s”) is calculated as is calculated as:

Tes = Service_Channels/Celles · Service_Channel_Bit_Ratees

4.3.3 Obtaining the system capability (Steps C4-C5)

C4 Net_System_Capability (Ses) parameters

Ses is a measure of the system capacity of a specific technology. Often the values required to
determine Ses are obtained from the results of complex system simulations. An example calculation
of the system capacity is provided in Appendix 1. The following subsections explain some of the
steps of the system capability calculation and suggest propagation models for obtaining coverage
and co-channel interference estimates.

The example calculations have considered a reliability level of 90% against noise and interference
on the cell border. Hence, a typical 95% area coverage reliability is achieved with the fading and
interference margins applied.

C5 Calculate Ses (Mbit/s/MHz/cell)

The net system capability (Step C5) is used to calculate required bandwidth. By dividing traffic
(Step C3) by Step C5, we can obtain required bandwidth (Steps D1, D2, and consequently D3
below). The net system capability figure is derived by system evaluations in each of the four
environments. Here path loss, interference, reliability margins, throughput, etc. are taken into
account. In order to follow the ITU-R method and to be able to make comparisons, well-known
path-loss models should be used.

In the example calculation in Appendix 1, this value is calculated by dividing the transmission rate
by the multiplication of the bandwidth per channel and the reuse factor of the radio frequency.

4.4 Spectrum calculations (Step D)

The remaining parameters of equation (1) can now be obtained in order to determine the spectrum
requirement for each environment.

D1 Calculate the individual Fes component (MHz)

For either uplink or downlink, Fes = Tes/Ses.

D2 Repeat the process for calculation of the other direction

Repeat Steps A2 through D1.

 Rec. ITU-R M.1651 15

D3 Combine uplink and downlink Fes components (MHz)

For each service “s” in each environment “e”:

Fes = (Fes uplink + Fes downlink)

D4 Determine the number of channels (n)

This is an upward rounding required to get an integer number of channels:

n = int {(Σ Fes /channel bandwidth) + 0.5}

D5 Total spectrum

The sum of the required spectrum for each environment “e” is given by in Equation (1) (combine
uplink and downlink), rounded up to a multiple of the channel bandwidth.

Appendix 1 contains example calculations with all the required steps in spreadsheet format.

The total spectrum required for the environments is then calculated based on penetration rates
assumed for the year 2010.

For the example calculation, it is assumed that spectrum allocations allow 20 MHz channelization
in a manner that minimizes guardbands at band edges. Any requirement for larger guardbands
would clearly increase the total spectrum required.

The resulting spectrum requirements in this example are 420 MHz, 340 MHz and 320 MHz for the
corporate, home and public environments, respectively (see Appendix 1). These requirements are
valid for each of these geographically limited environments and are mutually exclusive. The
requirements can be regarded as being at the lower end since the calculation is based on the
standard with the most efficient MAC protocol of the standards listed in Recommendation
ITU-R M.1450.

Appendix 1
to Annex 1

Examples of the application of the methodology

Examples of the application of the methodology to the office, public and home environments are
given in this Appendix (wide area access is treated in a similar way). The calculation is performed
with a spreadsheet, using the parameters and system capacity figures shown. In the calculation of
net system capability the throughput value 70% is used. A lower throughput MAC protocol would
result in a larger spectrum need. The spectrum requirements calculated can thus be regarded as
being at the low end of the range needed to support the user density and traffic parameters used.
The antenna radiation pattern is taken to be nominally omnidirectional for all terminals and access
points.
16 Rec. ITU-R M.1651

The spreadsheet for the calculation of the net system capability for the office environment is
followed by another sheet for the subsequent estimate of spectrum need according to the steps of the
method. The resulting spectrum requirement in this example is 420 MHz, 340 MHz and 320 MHz
for the corporate, home and public environments, respectively.

First we consider the services. Table 8 lists the services that are envisaged with their assumed
characteristics. In order to simplify the calculations, these have been grouped into a reduced number
of categories and for each environment the applications have been given the attributes required for
the spectrum calculations shown in Tables 9-11.

TABLE 9

Predicted traffic parameters for corporate environments

Busy hour
Corporate Average Peak data- Session
Main link sessions/h Activity
environ- data-rate QoS rate duration
direction (average over factor
ment (Mbit/s) (Mbit/s) (s)
week)
MiMM Up and down 2 Yes 4 0.5 300 0.45
HMM Up and down 2 No 10 0.5 600 0.16
HiMM Up and down 5 No 8 0.3 1 200 0.35
VHMM Up and down 7 Yes 20 0.1 1 800 0.5
VHiMM Up and down 5 Yes 15 0.1 1 500 0.4

TABLE 10

Predicted traffic parameters for public environments

Busy hour
Public Average Peak data- Session
Main link sessions/h Activity
environ- data-rate QoS rate duration
direction (average over factor
ment (Mbit/s) (Mbits/s) (s)
week)
MiMM Up and down 1 Yes 2 0,5 90 0.45
HMM Up or down 2 No 10 0,2 300 0.1
HiMM Up and down 3 No 8 0,4 90 0.3
VHMM Up or down 6 Yes 12 0,06 600 0.5
VHiMM Up and down 5 Yes 15 0,06 900 0.4
 Rec. ITU-R M.1651 17

TABLE 11

Predicted traffic parameters rates for home environments

Busy hour
Home Average Peak data- Session
Main link sessions/h Activity
environ- data-rate QoS rate duration
direction (average over factor
ment (Mbit/s) (Mbits/s) (s)
week)

MiMM Up and down 2 No 4 0.2 90 0.45

HMM Up or down 2 No 10 0.3 600 0.12
HiMM Up and down 4 No 8 0.3 150 0.3
VHMM Up or down 10 Yes 20 0.1 3 600 0.5
VHiMM Up and down 5 Yes 15 0.1 3 600 0.4

These traffic parameters are used in Steps B5-B7. Next, Table 12 shows the spreadsheet calculation
of the net system capability for the corporate environment; the figures for all environments
considered in this example are summarized in Table 13.

TABLE 12

Net system capability for the Corporate Environment

Corporate environment

Adaptive
Mode 1 Mode 2 Mode 3 Mode 4 Mode 5 Mode 6
mode
Modulation BPSK BPSK QPSK QPSK 16-QAM 16-QAM Adaptive
Bit rate 6 9 12 18 27 36 23,.37
Scenario Office Office Office Office Office Office
e.i.r.p. (dBm) 23.0 23.0 23.0 23.0 23.0 23.0
Path loss, Lb (dB) –93.9 –92.4 –91.2 –88.5 –86.0 –84.0
Number of walls AP-MT 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
Wall attenuation, Lwall 8.4 8.4 8.4 8.4 8.4 8.4
(dB)
AP-MT separation (m) 18.0 17.0 16.0 14.0 13.0 12.0 15.0
Received power, –69.4 –67.9 –66.7 –64.0 –61.5 –59.5
Pr (dBm)
Cell area (m2) 1 017.9 907.9 804.2 615.8 530.9 452.4 1 017.9
Frequency (GHz) 5.3 5.3 5.3 5.3 5.3 5.3
Frequency reuse 4.0 4.0 4.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0
Rate/ channel (Mbit/s) 4.2 6.3 8.4 12.6 18.9 25.2 11.81
Threshold C/(N + I) (dB) 9.0 11.0 13.0 15.0 19.0 21.0
Pr specified (dBm) –85.0 –83.0 –81.0 –79.0 –75.0 –73.0
18 Rec. ITU-R M.1651

TABLE 12 (end)

Corporate environment

Adaptive
Mode 1 Mode 2 Mode 3 Mode 4 Mode 5 Mode 6
mode
Fade margin (dB) 15.5 15.1 14.3 14.9 13.5 13.5
σ log-normal 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0
M-value 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.3
Fade margin, (90% 7.7 7.7 7.7 7.7 7.7 7.7
M · σ (dB)
Maximum loss, 109.5 107.5 105.5 103.5 99.5 97.5
Lmax (dB)
Number of walls AP-AP 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0
Number of walls APco 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0
Lwall (dB) 14.9 14.9 14.9 14.9 14.9 14.9
Maximum AP 50.0 50.0 50.0 50.0 50.0 50.0 50.0
separation (m)
APco separation (m) 87.1 87.1 87.1 77.6 77.6 77.6
Idownlink (dBm) –88.5 –89.0 –89.4 –88.4 –89.0 –89.3
System margin, 90% 2.1 1.0 0.0 0.0 7.4 6.5 2.8
Mode area (%) 11 10 19 8 8 44 100
System capacity 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.19 0,28 0.38 0.16
(Mbit/s)

TABLE 13

Net system capability

Corporate Home Public

Net_System_Capability (Mbit/s/MHz/cell) 0.16 0.160 0.290
2
Coverage area (m ) 1 018 707 5 027

Finally, Table 14 shows the spreadsheet calculation of the spectrum requirements. These
requirements are valid for each of the (geographically limited) environments, and are thus mutually
exclusive.

TABLE 14

5 GHz RLAN spectrum requirement and calculation for the year 2010

Step Parameter Corporate Home Public Comments

A3 Cell geometry (m) 18 15 40 Defined by AP
separation distance
A4 Cell area circular (m2) 1 018 707 5 027
 Rec. ITU-R M.1651 19

TABLE 14 (continued)

Step Parameter Corporate Home Public Comments

2
B2 Area per user (m ) 14 100 10
B3 Penetration_Rate (%) 30 30 20
B4 Users/Cell = B3 · A4/B2
MiMM 22 3 101
HMM 22 3 101
HiMM 22 3 101
VHMM 22 3 101
VHiMM 22 3 101
B5 Busy_Hour_Session_Atte Averages over large
mpts (/busy hour) average user population
over typical week
MiMM 0.5 0.2 0.5
HMM 0.5 0.3 0.2
HiMM 0.3 0.4 0.4
VHMM 0.1 0.3 0.06
VHiMM 0.1 0.3 0.06
B5 Session duration (s)
MiMM 300 90 90
HMM 600 600 300
HiMM 1 200 150 90
VHMM 1 800 3 600 600
VHiMM 1 500 3 600 900
B5 Activity_Factor packet Defined as the
communications fraction of the time
MiMM 0.45 0.45 0.45 the resource is used
HMM 0.16 0.12 0.1
HiMM 0.35 0.3 0.3
VHMM 0.5 0.5 0.5
VHiMM 0.4 0.4 0.4
B6 Traffic/User (session-
seconds)
MiMM 67.5 8.1 20.25
HMM 48 21.6 6
HiMM 126 18 10.8
VHMM 90 540 18
VHiMM 60 432 21.6
20 Rec. ITU-R M.1651

TABLE 14 (continued)

Step Parameter Corporate Home Public Comments

B7 Offered_Traffic/Cell
(relative busy hour
activity/cell)
MiMM 0.412 0.007 0.568
HMM 0.293 0.018 0.168
HiMM 0.77 0.015 0.303
VHMM 0.55 0.450 0.505
VHiMM 0.366 0.360 0.606
B8 QoS QoS is accounted for
MiMM 1 1 1 within the system
capability (Step C)
HMM 1 1 1 hence the factor is set
HiMM 1 1 1 to 1 here
VHMM 1 1 1
VHiMM 1 1 1
C1 Number of Round up according
Service_Channels/cell to Step C1
required to carry
Offered_Traffic/Cell
MiMM 0.5 0.1 0.6
HMM 0.3 0.1 0.2
HiMM 0.8 0.1 0.4
VHMM 0.6 0.5 0.6
VHiMM 0.4 0.4 0.7
C2 Service_Channel_Bit_Rate These figures are set
needed to carry by the PHY modes in
Net_User_Bit_Rate Table 3
(Mbit/s)
MiMM 6 6 6
HMM 12 12 12
HiMM 12 12 12
VHMM 27 36 36
VHiMM 27 36 36
C3 Traffic (Mbit/s/cell) This is the actual
MiMM 3 0.6 3.6 traffic transmitted
HMM 3.6 1.2 2.4
HiMM 9.6 1.2 4.8
VHMM 16.2 18 21.6
VHiMM 10.8 14.4 25.2
 Rec. ITU-R M.1651 21

TABLE 14 (continued)

Step Parameter Corporate Home Public Comments

C4 Net_System_Capability Parameters were set
parameters and a spreadsheet
simulation used to
obtain the capability
in C5
C5 Net_System_Capability This represents the
(Mbit/s/MHz/cell) average of all modes
MiMM 0.16 0.16 0.29 due to rate
adaptation, obtained
HMM 0.16 0.16 0.29 from the simulation
HiMM 0.16 0.16 0.29
VHMM 0.16 0.16 0.29
VHiMM 0.16 0.16 0.29
D1 Fes component
Fes = Tes/Ses
(uplink/downlink)
MiMM 18.75 3.8 12.4
HMM 22.5 7.5 8.3
HiMM 60.0 7.5 16.6
VHMM 101.250 112.5 74.5
VHiMM 67.5 90.0 86.9
D2 Repeat the process for
calculation of the other
direction (downlink/uplink)
MiMM 18.75 3.8 12.4
HMM 0 0 0
HiMM 60.0 7.5 16.6
VHMM 0 0 0
VHiMM 67.5 90.0 86.9
22 Rec. ITU-R M.1651

TABLE 14 (end)

Step Parameter Corporate Home Public Comments

D3 Fes for the service “s”
combining uplink and
downlink components
MiMM 37.5 7.5 24.8
HMM 22.5 7.5 8.3
HiMM 120 15.0 33.1
VHMM 101.25 112.5 74.5
VHiMM 135.0 180.0 173.8
D4 Integer multiple, n, of 21 17 16 20 MHz channels are
channel bandwidth assumed
D5 Sum Fe for all services in 420 340 320 This is the resultant
environment, upward (example) total
rounding according to required spectrum for
Step D4 (MHz) each environment
(Σ Fes · n)