Very useful user manual, regardless whether you are an administrator of Atoll or an advanced user. This document will give you the insight into how At...
Part 1 Getting Started This part of the administrator manual provides the information to install and set up Atoll and its components, and to manage databases and multi-user environments.
In this part, the following are explained: •
"Getting Started" on page 21
•
"Installing Atoll and Components" on page 25
•
"Setting Up Distributed Calculation Server" on page 35
•
"Managing Licences" on page 39
•
"Managing Databases" on page 45
•
"Multi-user Environments" on page 65
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1 Getting Started Atoll is an open, scalable, and flexible multi-technology network design and optimisation platform that supports wireless operators throughout the network lifecycle, from initial design to densification and optimisation. Atoll supports a wide range of implementation scenarios, from standalone to enterprise-wide server-based configurations using distributed and multithreaded computing. This manual explains how to install, configure, and deploy Atoll and how to set up back-end databases and manage users in a multiuser environment. Database structures of the different technology modules are also provided for reference. In this chapter, the following are explained: • • • • • •
"Supported Technologies" on page 21 "Supported Operating Systems" on page 21 "Supported Database Management Systems" on page 21 "Supported Installation Configurations" on page 22 "Recommended Hardware and Software" on page 22 "Recommended Computer Network Architecture" on page 23.
1.1 Supported Technologies Atoll supports the following technologies: • • • • • • • •
1.2 Supported Operating Systems Atoll supports the following versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems: • • • • • •
Microsoft Windows XP (32-bit and 64-bit) Microsoft Windows Vista (32-bit and 64-bit) Microsoft Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit) Microsoft Windows 2003 Server Microsoft Windows 2008 Server (32-bit and 64-bit) Microsoft Windows 2008 Server R2
1.3 Supported Database Management Systems In a multi-user environment, databases allow several users to share data without the risk of data inconsistency. In a multi-user environment, user documents are connected to a central database, in which users store their work on a common project. Atoll supports the following RDBMS: • • • • •
Oracle via the OLE DB interface Microsoft SQL Server Microsoft Access Sybase Any database that accepts UDL files and supports the ODBC interface • • •
Oracle client version 10.0.2.3 or later should be used. Sybase client version 12.5.0 should be used. The version 12.5.4 is not supported. Sybase client version 12.5.0 works with Microsoft Windows XP, not with the later versions.
The physical location of databases varies according to the type of the database. The following table shows where the database must be installed:
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It is possible to work with an Atoll document connected to a Microsoft Access database even if Microsoft Access is not installed on the computer.
1.4 Supported Installation Configurations Depending on your requirements, Atoll can be installed in a: •
Standalone configuration Atoll installed on each individual user computer with a fixed licence key plugged in each computer.
•
Workstation-based multi-user configuration Atoll installed on each individual user computer on a network with a floating licence management server that allocates licence tokens to Atoll sessions run by users on their computers.
•
Server-based multi-user configuration Atoll installed on servers connected to user computers and a floating licence management server on a network. The floating licence management server allocates licence tokens to Atoll sessions run by the users on the servers. The servers may be Citrix-based, where users run Atoll sessions on the servers through the Citrix interface.
1.5 Recommended Hardware and Software This section provides guidelines for dimensioning client computers and servers on your network for optimum performance with Atoll. This section lists the recommended hardware and software for: • • • • •
"User Computers" on page 22 "Database Servers" on page 22 "Citrix Servers" on page 23 "Floating Licence Servers" on page 23 "File Servers" on page 23.
1.5.1 User Computers The following table lists the required and recommended hardware and software for user computers (clients) intended for running with Atoll.
a.
Processor
Dual-core or better
RAM
2 GB or more
Free hard disk space
At least 10 GBa
Operating system
Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP3 / Microsoft Windows 7
Other requirements
- Fixed licence: 1 USB port required to plug-in the fixed licence key - Floating licence: nethasp.ini file in the Atoll installation folder
Depends on the size of the locally stored geographic data and path loss matrices, if any.
If you are working with an Oracle database, you must install Oracle client on the user computers as well. The Oracle client version must correspond to the Oracle database installed on the database server.
1.5.2 Database Servers The following table lists the required and recommended hardware and software for an Oracle database server. The same configuration can be considered valid for other database systems as well.
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Processor
Dual-core
RAM
3 GB or more
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a.
Free hard disk space
120 GB or morea
Operating system
Microsoft Windows 2003 Server / Microsoft Windows 2008 Server / Unix / Linux
RDBMS
Oracle 10g or 11g / Microsoft SQL Server 2005 / Sybase Adaptive Server 12.5.0
Tablespace of around 100 MB per 10000 transmitters.
1.5.3 Citrix Servers Citrix servers are intended for installing and running Atoll, defining user rights, etc. Users can work with Atoll installed on these servers through Citrix MetaFrame. The following table lists the required and recommended hardware and software for Citrix servers intended for running with Atoll. Processor
1 dual-core processor per 2 to 3 users (1 quad-core per 4 to 6, and so on)
RAM
1 GB per user
Free hard disk space
72 GB or more
Operating system
Microsoft Windows 2003 Server / Microsoft Windows 2008 Server
Citrix
Citrix (XenApp) MetaFrame Presentation Server 4.0 or later
The recommended bandwidth between Citrix servers and Citrix clients for satisfactory performance is 300 Kbps per user.
Must be accessible to all the user computers / Citrix servers on the network in order to provide licence tokens for Atoll sessions. Must have a steady and reliable network connection with user computers / Citrix servers. Must have the HASP licence manager installed and running. For more information, see "Working with Floating Licences" on page 39. Must have the floating licence key plugged in. Can be one of the Citrix servers.
1.5.5 File Servers File servers may store geographic data, path loss matrices, Atoll configuration and initialistaion files, and user projects. The required hard disk space has to be determined from the file sizes of these data. The recommended bandwidth between the user computers / Citrix servers and the file servers is 30 Mbps per user performing calculations. This bandwidth is needed during calculations for data exchange between Atoll sessions and the file servers. Geographic data and shared path loss matrices should be stored on file servers so that the calculation processes accessing these data do not affect Atoll’s usage and unnecessarily slow down the GUI.
1.6 Recommended Computer Network Architecture The following network architecture recommendations are based on benchmark test results carried out on the network of an average-sized operator, with around 40 to 60 Atoll licences. The results show the requirements in terms of network, hardware, and software. Based on these recommendations, you can set up your network environment for any number of users. The benchmark tests were based on the following scenario: •
Number of end-users: 40
•
Each user working on an Atoll document with: • • • •
Total number of sites: Number of sites in the calculation area: Per-sector path loss calculation radius: Path loss calculation resolution:
1660 sites (around 5000 cells) 300 sites (900 cells) 20 km (i.e., matrices of 40 km x 40 km each) 50 m
In order to simulate the average activity of Atoll users, each user is assumed to carry out a "Routine Operation" 5 times during a three-hour working period. The "Routine Operation" consists in modifying parameters for 40 cells in 30 minutes, recalculating path loss matrices for these 40 cells, and calculating a best server coverage prediction.
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Although a best server coverage prediction does not require a lot of computer resources for calculations, it requires Atoll to load all the path loss matrices in memory. When the path loss matrices are stored on a file server, as recommended, this operation creates a considerable data transfer activity over the network. The benchmark tests have been based on this simulated data transfer activity. Computer Network Architecture A centralised network architecture is the most widely used network architecture by Atoll users. The figure below shows the recommended architecture along with a per-user network bandwidth requirement between different network components.
Figure 1.1: Recommended Network Architecture and Bandwidth Requirements Citrix MetaFrame is used to centralise data and balance user loads between servers. A network based on such an architecture with Citrix servers must provide high speed connections between the Citrix servers and the file servers. The required number of Citrix servers depends on the number of users. On the average, one processor per 2 to 3 users is recommended. Thus, the required number of Citrix servers depends on the number of processors and the number of endusers. Computer Network Dimensioning You should set up your network according to the number of Atoll users, which is related to the size of the planning project. A country-wide project would have larger network dimensions than a project that covers a city. Link
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Recommended Bandwidth
From
To
End-user
Citrix server
300 kbps per user
Citrix server
File server
30 Mbps per user performing calculations
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2 Installing Atoll and Components The following sections describe the installation procedures for Atoll and its following components: • • • •
Driver for Fixed Licence Keys Distributed Calculation Server Atoll Management Console Add-ins and macros
You need administrator rights for installing Atoll and its components.
2.1 Installing Atoll Using the Setup Wizard To install Atoll: •
If you work with fixed licences, you must unplug the key before the installation and wait for the installation to finish before inserting it in.
•
Disable UAC (User Account Control) for the following versions of Microsoft Windows. If you are installing Atoll on other versions of Microsoft Windows, proceed to step 1. • • • •
Microsoft Windows Vista Microsoft Windows 7 Microsoft Windows 2008 Server Microsoft Windows 2008 Server R2
To disable UAC: a. Go to Control Panel > User Accounts. b. Select Change User Account Control settings. The User Account Control Settings dialogue appears. c. Choose Never notify. d. Click OK. 1. Run the Atoll setup. The setup program uses a wizard interface, with a step-wise description of the installation. You can, • • •
Click Next to proceed to the next step, Click Back to go back and modify previously set options, or Click Cancel to cancel the installation.
Figure 2.1: Atoll Setup Wizard 2. Click Next. The Select Destination Location dialogue appears. 3. Select the destination folder for the installation. The default installation folder for Atoll is C:\Program Files\Forsk\Atoll in the 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows, and C:\Program Files (x86)\Forsk\Atoll in the 64-bit versions. You can select a different location by clicking Browse.
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Figure 2.2: Select Destination Location Dialogue 4. Click Next. The Select Components dialogue appears. 5. Select the components to install. • • •
Full installation: Atoll and all its components will be installed. Compact installation: Only Atoll will be installed. Custom installation: Atoll and the selected components will be installed.
Figure 2.3: Select Components Dialogue 6. Click Next. If you selected the Distributed Calculation Server component for installation, the Logon Information dialogue appears. If you did not select this component, the Select Start Menu Folder dialogue appears. In which case, proceed to step 7.
Figure 2.4: Select Components Dialogue a. Enter the Domain name, Username, and Password. This information will be used to run the distributed calculation service on the computer, and allow other users of the domain to access this service. b. Click Next. The Select Start Menu Folder dialogue appears 7. Select the Start Menu folder for Atoll. The default Start Menu folder for Atoll is Atoll. You can select a different folder by clicking Browse.
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Figure 2.5: Select Start Menu Folder Dialogue 8. Click Next. The Ready to Install dialogue appears. 9. Review the installation parameters.
Figure 2.6: Ready to Install Dialogue 10. Click Install. Atoll and its selected components are installed on the computer. •
If you work with fixed licences and you installed the Driver for Fixed Licence Keys, restart the computer. Restarting the computer is necessary for the driver to work.
•
If you work with fixed licences, plug in the fixed licence key.
•
On the versions of Microsoft Windows that support UAC (disabled before the installation), run Atoll once using an administrator account and with UAC disabled when the installation is complete. •
If the following files do not already exist in the installation folder, empty ones are created by the setup: • [Atoll installation folder]\Atoll.ini • [Atoll installation folder]\coordsystems\Favourites.cs These files are not removed when Atoll is uninstalled.
•
If you have installed Atoll on a Citrix server, you must publish it to make it access to users.
To restrict access to the Atoll installation folder, you can assign read/write access rights to this folder to administrators and read-only rights to end-users.
2.2 Installing Atoll C++ Development Kit To install the Atoll C++ development kit: •
Visual C++ must be installed before installing the Atoll C++ development kit.
•
Atoll should be installed for testing the add-ins.
•
Disable UAC (User Account Control) for the following versions of Microsoft Windows. If you are installing Atoll C++ development kit on other versions of Microsoft Windows, proceed to step 1.
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Microsoft Windows Vista Microsoft Windows 7 Microsoft Windows 2008 Server Microsoft Windows 2008 Server R2
To disable UAC: a. Go to Control Panel > User Accounts. b. Select Change User Account Control settings. The User Account Control Settings dialogue appears. c. Choose Never notify. d. Click OK. 1. Run the Atoll C++ development kit setup. The setup program uses a wizard interface, with a step-wise description of the installation. You can, • • •
Click Next to proceed to the next step, Click Back to go back and modify previously set options, or Click Cancel to cancel the installation.
Figure 2.7: Atoll C++ Development Kit Setup Wizard 2. Click Next. The Select Destination Location dialogue appears. 3. Select the destination folder for the installation. The default installation folder for Atoll C++ Development Kit is C:\Program Files\Forsk\Atoll in the 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows, and C:\Program Files (x86)\Forsk\Atoll in the 64-bit versions. You can select a different location by clicking Browse.
Figure 2.8: Select Destination Location Dialogue 4. Click Next. The Ready to Install dialogue appears. 5. Review the installation parameters.
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Figure 2.9: Ready to Install Dialogue 6. Click Install. Atoll C++ Development Kit is installed on the computer.
2.3 Setup Command Line Parameters You can also install Atoll and its components from the command line. The Atoll setup program accepts optional command line parameters, which can be useful to administrators, and to other programs calling the setup program. For example, when automating the installation through batch files. The following command line parameters are accepted by the Atoll setup program. •
/SILENT, /VERYSILENT Instructs the setup to be silent or very silent. When the setup is silent the wizard window is not displayed but the installation progress window is. When a setup is very silent the installation progress window is not displayed. Everything else is normal. So, for example, error messages during installation are displayed, and also the startup prompt. If the setup is silent and it requires to restart the computer, but the /NORESTART option is not used (see below), it will display a Reboot now? message box. If it is very silent it will reboot without asking.
•
/NOCANCEL Prevents the user from cancelling the installation by disabling the cancel button and ignoring clicks on the close button. Useful along with /SILENT or /VERYSILENT.
•
/NORESTART Instructs the setup not to restart the computer even if necessary.
•
/SAVEINF="file name" Instructs the setup to save installation settings to the specified file. Use quotes if the file name contains spaces.
•
/LOADINF="file name" Instructs the setup to load the settings from the specified file after having checked the command line. This file can be prepared using the /SAVEINF command as explained above. Use quotes if the file name contains spaces.
•
/DIR="x:\folder name" Overrides the default installation folder displayed on the Select Destination Location wizard page. Use quotes if the folder name contains spaces.
•
/GROUP="folder name" Overrides the default Start Menu folder name displayed on the Select Start Menu Folder wizard page. Use quotes if the folder name contains spaces.
•
/LOG="file name" Causes the setup to create a log file listing file installation and actions taken during the installation process. This can be helpful for troubleshooting. For example, if you suspect a file is not being installed as it should be, the log file will tell you if the file was actually skipped and why. Use quotes if the filename contains spaces. If the file cannot be created, the setup will abort with an error message.
•
/SVRACCOUNT="domainname\username" The domain name and user name for installing the distributed calculation server.
•
/SVRPASSWD=password
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Password for installing the distributed calculation server. •
/TYPE=type name Overrides the default setup type. The setup type names are: • • •
Full installation: full Compact installation: compact Custom installation: custom
For full and compact setup types, the /COMPONENTS parameters are ignored. •
/COMPONENTS="comma separated list of component names" Overrides the default component settings. Using this command line parameter causes the setup to automatically select a custom installation type. Only the specified components will be selected. Component names are: • • • • • •
Atoll: Atoll Export to Google Earth add-in: "Addins\GoogleEarth" Best signal export add-in: "Addins\SignalsExport" Driver for fixed licence keys: RainbowDongle Distributed calculation server: Atoll_Server Atoll Management Console: AMC
Example: To install Atoll, the distributed calculation server, and the driver for fixed licence keys: /COMPONENTS="Atoll,Atoll_Server,RainbowDongle"
2.4 Installing and Uninstalling Add-ins Add-ins are compiled DLL files which can be placed in any folder and activated by registering them in the Windows registery. Add-ins developed by Forsk have dedicated setup programs, which place the add-ins’ DLLs in appropriate locations and register them. The setup procedures in these cases are described in the add-ins’ documentation. To install an add-in by registering its DLL: 1. Close Atoll. 2. Right-click the DLL file in Windows Explorer. The context menu appears. 3. Select Register. The DLL is registered. You can also register the DLL from the command prompt using regsrv32.exe. Once an add-in is installed, Atoll loads it in the list of available add-ins. It is possible to access and work with add-ins and macros when there is no ATL file open in Atoll. To activate or deactivate an installed add-in in Atoll: 1. In Atoll, select Tools > Add-ins and Macros. The Add-ins and Macros dialogue appears (see Figure 2.10 on page 30). 2. Select the add-in’s check box to activate it, or clear the check box to deactivate it.
Figure 2.10: Add-ins and Macros Dialogue
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Add-ins installed by the Atoll setup are uninstalled when Atoll is uninstalled. To uninstall any other add-in by unregistering its DLL: 1. Close Atoll. 2. Right-click the DLL file in Windows Explorer. The context menu appears. 3. Select Unregister. The DLL is unregistered. You can also unregister the DLL from the command prompt using regsrv32.exe /u.
2.5 Installing and Uninstalling Macros Atoll can load and execute macros written in VBScript. To load a macro in Atoll: 1. In Atoll, select Tools > Add-ins and Macros. The Add-ins and Macros dialogue appears (see Figure 2.10 on page 30). 2. Click Add. The Open dialogue appears. 3. Select the macro file you wish to load. 4. Click Open. The macro is added to Atoll. • •
To disable the macro timeout, set it to 0. If you leave the timeout empty, the default value (24 days) is used.
Lists of macros available in Atoll can be stored in user configuration files. Macros listed in the user configuration files are added to Atoll when the user configuration files are loaded. For more information, refer to "Contents of User Configuration Files" on page 142. To remove a macro from Atoll: 1. In Atoll, select Tools > Add-ins and Macros. The Add-ins and Macros dialogue appears (see Figure 2.10 on page 30). 2. In the list of available macros, select the macro you wish to remove. 3. Click Delete. Other commands available in the Add-ins and Macros dialogue are: • • • •
Edit: Edit the selected macro in the default text editor. Run: Execute the selected macro. Icon: Assign an icon to the selected macro. Icons assigned to macros appear in the Macros toolbar. Refresh: To reload the selected macro file.
2.6 Atoll Command Line Parameters Atoll supports the following optional command line parameters: Atoll.exe [-log "logfilename"] [-Ini "inifilename"] [-Cfg "cfgfilename"] [-Provider providername -UserId username -Password password -DataSource server -Project projectaccount] •
-log "logfilename" Instructs Atoll to create a log file containing all the messages listed in the Events tab. This may be helpful for troubleshooting. "logfilename" is the full path and file name of the log file inside quotes.
•
-Ini "inifilename" Instructs Atoll to load the specified initialisation file when run. This may be used to override the default loading of the Atoll.ini file located in the Atoll installation folder. "inifilename" is the full path and file name of the initialisation file inside quotes.
•
-Cfg "cfgfilename" Instructs Atoll to load the specified user configuration file when run. This may be used to override the default loading of the Atoll.cfg file located in the Atoll installation folder. "cfgfilename" is the full path and file name of the user configuration file inside quotes.
•
-Provider providername
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Instructs Atoll to use the mentioned providername to access the database server (Microsoft Access: Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0, or Oracle: MSDAORA.1). •
-DataSource server Instructs Atoll to access the mentioned database server using the given provider.
•
-UserId username Instructs Atoll to access the mentioned Oracle database server using the mentioned username.
•
-Password password Instructs Atoll to access the mentioned Oracle database server using the mentioned password.
•
-Project projectaccount Instructs Atoll to access the mentioned Oracle database server using the mentioned projectaccount. •
The keywords Provider, Password, UserId, DataSource, and Project are case sensitive.
2.7 Troubleshooting and Other Information Read and follow the instructions in "Installing Atoll Using the Setup Wizard" on page 25 carefully for a smooth installation. If problems occur and you are unable to resolve them with the help of the following information, contact Forsk’s customer support. Microsoft Windows Updates •
•
It is recommended to install new Windows updates. However, it is also recommended to go through the description of each update patch to see whether it might have a negative effect on your system or network. Pay special attention to updates and patches related to networking. It is also recommended to keep the Windows updates uninstall folders, named "$NtUninstall...", under the Windows folder, in case you have to uninstall a certain patch. Some of the update patches may require uninstall folders of older patches to be available for their own installation.
Fixed licence keys •
Fixed licence keys cannot be used with "Server"-type operating systems. Therefore, you should not install the driver for fixed licence keys on: • • •
• •
• • •
•
Microsoft Windows 2003 Server Microsoft Windows 2008 Server Microsoft Windows 2008 Server R2
The current version of the driver for fixed licence keys (Sentinel SuperPro driver) installed with Atoll is the 7.6.1. If Atoll is unable to access the fixed licence key, even after a clean installation, try reinstalling the Sentinel SuperPro driver manually. The driver’s setup program (SPI761.exe) is copied to the Sentinel subfolder in the Atoll installation folder by the setup if you selected the Driver for Fixed Licence Keys component during the installation. You can also download the driver from http://www.safenet-inc.com. Restart the computer when asked by the setup. Restarting the computer is necessary for the driver for fixed licence keys to work. If you get a protection key error message, verify that the fixed licence key correctly plugged in and that the licence has not expired. In case the fixed or the floating licence key becomes unavailable, Atoll will ask the users currently accessing the key to save their open documents before Atoll closes. If the key becomes available again, Atoll will let the users continue working. Do not change the computer’s date.
Citrix •
If you have installed Atoll on a Citrix MetaFrame server, you must published it to make it available to the users.
Atoll version and build •
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You can get information about Atoll (version, build, type of licence and remaining time before expiration, etc.) by selecting Help > About Atoll in the main menu in Atoll.
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Atoll file version and technology ATL file properties store the Atoll version and build number in which the file was last saved, and the technologies contained in the file. To access the ATL file properties: 1. Right-click the ATL file in the Windows Explorer. The context menu appears. 2. Select Properties from the context menu. The file properties dialogue appears. 3. In Windows XP, click the Summary tab and then the Advanced button. In Windows Vista and 7, click the Details tab. The Atoll version and build number in which the ATL file was last saved are stored in the Revision number property. The technologies of the document are listed in the Category property. Support website • • •
You can download the latest versions of Atoll from the Forsk’s support website by logging in with the user name and password provided to you by Forsk. The Atoll User Manual and other documents are available on the installation CD. More documents are available for download on the Forsk’s support website. The support website also offers you: • •
A problem report template, Documentation,
Sample add-ins, macros, and scripts • • • • • •
Sample geographic data, List of fixed issues in the versions available for download, List of known issues, and possible workarounds, Schedule for upcoming versions, List of holidays.
For full contact details for customer support, see page 3.
Acknowledgement •
Atoll uses Inno Setup for installation. For more information, see http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php.
Uninstalling Atoll and its components It is recommended to uninstall Atoll and its components through Control Panel. To uninstall Atoll: •
In Windows XP or Windows 2003 Server: a. Go to Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs. b. In the Install/Uninstall tab, select Atoll from the list of installed programs. c. Click the Remove button.
•
In Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 2008 Server: a. Go to Control Panel > Programs and Features. b. In the Uninstall or change a program window, right-click Atoll. The context menu appears. c. Select Uninstall.
Add-ins installed by the Atoll setup are uninstalled when Atoll is uninstalled.
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3 Setting Up Distributed Calculation Server Distributed calculation enables you to distribute the calculation of path loss matrices over many computers in a network. The distributed calculation service is an optional service that may be installed at the same time as Atoll. For more information on installation, see "Installing Atoll and Components" on page 25. A computer on which the distributed calculation service is installed and running is called a distributed calculation server. This computer, the distributed calculation server, is visible to all the other computers on the network through Atoll. You may set up as many distributed calculation servers as required. The distributed calculation service does not have a user interface, and hence has lower memory requirements than Atoll. The distributed calculation server uses the standard Atoll API to exchange data with the path loss calculator and Atoll. The distributed calculation service supports dual-processor configurations and up to four threads. Any version of Atoll can work with the distributed calculation service of the same or later version. Consequently, any version of the distributed calculation service can work with the same or previous versions of Atoll (versions still maintained by Forsk). For distributed calculation server options available through the Atoll.ini file, see "Distributed Calculation Server Options" on page 181.
3.1 Setting Up Servers When installed, the distributed calculation service automatically starts and remains available as long as the computer is turned on. The service does not require any active user session on the computer, i.e., the service keeps running even when there is no user logged on. The service’s executable (AtollSvr.exe) is installed in the Atoll installation folder. The Atoll distributed calculation service is listed as Atoll Server in the Services management console under Control Panel >Administrative Tools. During calculations, the distributed calculation servers require access to geographic data for calculating the path loss matrices. The distributed calculation service must be run with a user account that has sufficient privileges to access the required data. To modify the user account through which the distributed calculation service is run on a computer: 1. Log on to the computer with a user account with administrator rights. 2. Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. 3. In the list of services, right-click the Atoll Server service. The context menu appears. 4. Select Properties. The Atoll Server Properties dialogue appears.
Figure 3.1: Atoll Server Properties 5. On the Log On tab, enter the user name and password for the user account through which you wish to run this service. 6. Click OK.
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Running More Than One Instance of the Service By default, a single instance of the distributed calculation service is run. You can, however, run up to 9 additional distributed calculation services (a total of 10 including the first one) manually. To manually run additional distributed calculation services, double-click the AtollSvr.exe file located in the Atoll installation folder. For each new instance of the service, a command prompt window opens. To stop an additional, manually run service, close the command prompt window corresponding to it. Atoll can detect a total of 10 instances of the distributed calculation service. If you run more than 9 additional distributed calculation services, they will not be detected by Atoll and can cause the operating system to stop responding. Stopping and Starting the Distributed Calculation Server To stop the distributed calculation service: 1. Log on to the computer with a user account with administrator rights. 2. Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. 3. In the list of services, right-click the Atoll Server service, and select Stop or Start from the context menu. Uninstalling the Distributed Calculation Server To uninstall the distributed calculation service: 1. Log on to the computer with a user account with administrator rights. 2. Stop the distributed calculation service: a. Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. b. In the list of services, right-click the Atoll Server service, and select Stop from the context menu. 3. Unregister the service: a. Select Start > Run. The Run dialogue appears. b. Type "\AtollSvr.exe /UnregServer". is the path to the Atoll installation folder. c. Click Run. This will remove the distributed calculation service from the computer.
3.2 Setting Up Atoll to Access the Servers To activate distributed calculations in Atoll: 1. Select Tools > Distributed Calculations from the main menu. The Distributed Calculations dialogue appears. 2. Select the Activate distributed calculation check box. a. To use all the available distributed calculation servers, click All. b. To use selected distributed calculation servers only, click Detect. Atoll searches for the available distributed calculation servers on the network. The available distributed calculation servers are listed in the edit box. c. Remove the distributed calculation servers that you do not wish to include. 3. Click OK. The selected distributed calculation servers are now available for path loss calculations.
3.3 Distributed Calculation Process Once distributed calculations have been set up on the calculation server and on the user sides, the path loss calculations run by the user are distributed over the available calculation servers. The calculation process is as follows: 1. Atoll user runs path loss calculations. 2. Atoll sends the needed network data to the available calculation servers. 3. Either Atoll sends the needed geographic data to the calculation servers or the servers access the geographic data on a file server.
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Atoll 3.1.0 Administrator Manual Chapter 3: Setting Up Distributed Calculation Server
4. Distributed calculation servers calculate the path loss matrices one by one. Distributed calculation servers that have spare threads start the calculations using these threads. If no thread is available, the request is placed in a queue to wait for a thread to become available. 5. For each calculated path loss matrix, a confirmation is sent to the Atoll session. Any error or warning messages generated are passed back to the Atoll session and displayed in the Event Viewer. If an error occurs on any of the distributed calculation servers, Atoll transfers the calculations back to the local computer. However, to avoid memory saturation, Atoll uses one thread on the local computer and calculates the path loss matrices one by one. It does not attempt creating more than one thread. 6. In order to reduce the amount of data flow in the network, distributed calculation servers send the results directly to the storage location (which may also be on a file server, not necessarily on the user’s computer that requested the calculations). 7. Atoll user may then request the path loss matrices from the file server if they are needed for coverage predictions.
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Atoll 3.1.0 Administrator Manual Chapter 3: Setting Up Distributed Calculation Server
Computers with fixed licence keys plugged in to USB slots on the computers themselves, or Computers connected to a licence server with a floating licence key plugged in to a USB port on the server.
The driver for fixed licence keys can be installed at the same time as Atoll. For more information, see "Installing Atoll and Components" on page 25. The software for managing floating licence keys must be installed on a server accessible to the computers on which Atoll is going to be used. For more information, see "Working with Floating Licences" on page 39. For information on the Atoll licence management utility, see "Using the Atoll Licence Manager" on page 41.
4.1 Working with Floating Licences A floating licence key may be used when users work with Atoll on computers on a network. In a floating licence environment, licence keys are not plugged in to each individual user’s computer, but a shared licence key with multiple tokens is available to users through a server. A floating licence server is a computer, accessible to other computers on a network, on which the floating licence management software has been installed and a floating licence key plugged in. The floating licence server may be one of the computers on which Atoll is installed. The floating licence management software and the floating licence key control the number of potential Atoll users. A floating licence system has a defined maximum number of tokens available. This is the maximum number of computers on which Atoll may be run simultaneously. Each computer that runs Atoll takes one token from the floating licence key, even if more than one Atoll session is run on the same computer. The token is released and made available for other users when all the Atoll sessions on the computer are closed. If a computer is connected to a floating licence server and also has a fixed licence key plugged in, the fixed licence key is accessed first. Atoll uses a 3rd-party floating licence management system called HASP from Aladdin. The floating licence management system includes: • • • • • •
HASP floating licence key: Hardware key programmed with the numbers of tokens available for each module. HASP licence manager: Interface between Atoll and the floating licence key. HASP device driver: Interface between the HASP licence manager and floating licence key. HASP monitor: Enables you to check the number of used and available tokens. nhsrv.ini file: Installed on the floating licence server to enable computers to use tokens. nethasp.ini file: Installed on the computers to facilitate access to the floating licence server. nhsrv.ini and nethasp.ini files are used if they exist. Default settings are used otherwise. •
• • •
You can download the HASP licence manager, the HASP device driver, and the HASP monitor from http://www3.safenet-inc.com/support/hasp/hasp4/enduser.aspx. Newer versions may be available for download at the website than those provided on the Atoll installation disk. When downloading setup files from the Aladdin website, remember to download setup files for HASP4, not HASP HL. The correct (recommended) version of the device driver setup to download is the one that works with "HASP4 API v8.x or Envelope 12.x". HASP hardware key is supported by Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2003 Server with HASP Licence Manager 8.20 or above.
4.1.1 HASP Licence Manager and Device Driver The HASP licence manager controls the allocation and retrieval of licence tokens available on a floating licence key. It uses the HASP device driver for communicating with the floating licence key. The HASP licence manager may be installed on a computer running Windows 2000 or later. A USB port must be available on the server for plugging in the floating licence key.
Do not plug the floating licence key in the server before installing the device drivers. Wait for the HASP licence manager setup to indicate when to plug in the key. If the floating licence server is protected by a firewall, port 475 must be open when using the UDP or TCP protocols. Once the HASP licence manager has been installed, the floating licence key must always remain plugged in. In case the fixed or the floating licence key becomes unavailable, Atoll will ask the users currently accessing the key to save their open documents before Atoll closes. If the key becomes available again, Atoll will let the users continue working. The floating licence key may become unavailable and a key protection error message appears in Atoll if the licence management server is heavily loaded. Check if there is any application running on the server that might be causing the problem. If this is the case, remove any such application from memory. If this is not possible, try changing the latency associated to the HASP licence manager in accessing the key.
Installation and Startup The HASP licence manager, the HASP device driver, and the floating licence key must be installed on the server. The following options should be selected when installing the HASP licence manager: •
Choose "Service" as the type of installation. This means that the licence manager will run as a service, and will be accessible even if there is no user logged on. You may choose to install it as an application, but in that case you will have to run the licence manager manually every time you log on to the server and you will have to stay logged on for the licence server to be available to the Atoll users.
•
Accept automatic driver installation. This will install the HASP device driver required by the HASP licence manager.
•
Once the device driver is successfully installed, plug in the floating licence key.
•
Once installed, start the HASP licence manager. If you selected "Service" as the type of installation, the licence manager will start in service mode. An icon will be available in the task bar. You can access the network communication protocols by double-clicking this icon. The HASP licence manager window displays a list of supported protocols which can be modified through the Load and Remove menus. Closing this window does not stop the licence manager. The icon remains available in the taskbar as long as the service is running. To stop the HASP licence manager: a. Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. b. In the list of services, right-click the HASP Loader service, and select Stop from the context menu.
•
You may also copy (from the installation CD) or create the nhsrv.ini file on the floating licence server (in the HASP licence manager installation folder). The HASP licence manager settings in this file can be modified according to the your requirements. For more information on the contents of the nhsrv.ini file, see "nhsrv.ini File" on page 40. To restrict access to the HASP licence manager installation folder, you can assign read/ write access rights to this folder to administrators and read-only rights to end-users.
HASP Monitor (Optional) You can install the HASP monitor on the floating licence server, or on one or several other computers, to monitor the token allocation and retrieval activity. The HASP monitor displays the list of computers using tokens available on the floating licence key.
4.1.2 nhsrv.ini File The nhsrv.ini file may be used to define a list of computers allowed to request tokens from the floating licence server. File Location If used, the nhsrv.ini file must be located in the HASP licence manager installation folder.
File Contents The following is a sample of the nhsrv.ini file that shows how to set a list of computers allowed access to the floating licence server. Complete syntax may be found on the HASP installation CD or on the Aladdin website. [NHS_SERVER] ;NHS_IP_LIMIT = [,,,...] ;Specifies the IP addresses of computers served by the licence manager ;Example: 10.1.1.1, 10.1.1.* ;For use, remove the semi-colon before NHS_IP_LIMIT
4.1.3 nethasp.ini File The nethasp.ini file enables Atoll to locate the floating licence server quickly. Without the nethasp.ini file, finding the floating licence server on the network may take a long time. File Location The nethasp.ini file should be located in the Atoll installation folder (recommended). If, for some reason, it is not possible to store the file in the Atoll installation folder, it may be stored in (in the order in which it is searched for by Atoll): •
The Windows folder (usually C:\Windows)
•
A folder listed in the system path variable
A nethasp.ini file located in the Atoll installation folder has priority over any nethasp.ini file located in the Windows folder, which in turn has priority over any nethasp.ini file located in a folder listed in the system path variable. Storing the nethasp.ini file in the Windows folder instead of the Atoll installation folder may be useful if you have more than one version of Atoll installed, and you wish to access the same floating licence server. This avoids making a copy of the file in each Atoll installation folder. File Contents The following is a sample of the nethasp.ini file with the minimum required information. Complete syntax may be found on the HASP installation CD or on the Aladdin website. [NH_COMMON] NH_IPX = Disabled
;Use the IPX protocol - Enabled or Disabled
NH_NETBIOS = Disabled
;Use the NETBIOS protocol - Enabled or Disabled
NH_TCPIP = Enabled
;Use the TCP/IP protocol - Enabled or Disabled
[NH_TCPIP] NH_SERVER_ADDR = 3CT000J
;(a)IP address of the floating licence server
NH_TCPIP_METHOD = UDP
;(b)Send TCP or UDP packets
NH_USE_BROADCAST = Disabled
;Use TCP/IP broadcast - Enabled or Disabled
a.
b.
It is recommended to enter the server name within the domain. For example, for servername.domainname.com, enter servername only. Only one server name is supported in the nethasp.ini file. For HASP Licence Manager 8.20 and later, Aladdin recommends UDP as the default TCP/IP method.
• •
Remove the NH_SESSION and NH_SEND_RCV entries from the nethasp.ini file if these exist. These fields define the timeout delays depending to the network. They may be useful in slow networks and should be set only if required.
4.2 Using the Atoll Licence Manager Atoll Licence Manager enables you to monitor, troubleshoot, and update licence keys. You must not use the licence manager without full instructions and details from Forsk customer support. Modifying parameters in the licence manager without proper input from Forsk customer support may damage your fixed or floating licences and block access of Atoll users to the licences.
4.2.1 Licence Manager Interface To open the Atoll licence manager: 1. Close Atoll. 2. Go to the Atoll installation folder. 3. Run Lic.exe. The licence manager opens (see Figure 4.1 on page 42).
Figure 4.1: Atoll Licence Manager 4. Under Available licences, select a licence key in order to display the information related to it. The Clear all button is reserved for Forsk use only.
Under Selected key the following information is available for the selected key: • • • • • • •
Number: Unique key number given by the key provider. This number must be communicated to Forsk, when requested, for reprogramming the licence key. Type: The type of key, Fixed licence or Floating licence. Reference: Unique floating licence key reference provided by Forsk. This number must be communicated to Forsk, when requested, for reprogramming the licence key. This reference is also printed on the sticker on the key. Location (server): Name of the floating licence management server on which the floating licence key is plugged. Under Modules and licences, all the Atoll modules available on the selected key are listed along with the numbers of licence tokens of each. Under Number of licences, the Modify buttons are reserved for Forsk use only. Under Dates and durations, the following dates and durations are available: • • • •
42
Licence start Licence end Duration of validity Time bomb
A purchased Atoll licence corresponds to a particular Atollversion. There is no time limit on using this version. However, yearly maintenance must be purchased in order to access newer versions with updates and bug fixes. When you purchase maintenance, Forsk reprograms your licence keys to allow access to new versions. The Time bomb date is the end date for maintenance. When the time bomb date passes, the licence key stops working. You may then choose to either purchase maintenance for the next year, and benefit from the new features and bug fixes, or have the licence key reprogrammed without maintenance for the next year, in which case users can continue working with the existing version. Atoll can inform you about the approaching time bomb date 30 days in advance. This alert can be configured through the Atoll.ini file. • • • •
Do not attempt to modify the Time bomb settings on the fixed licence key. Contact Forsk’s customer support. Do not change the computer’s date.
Under Profile signature, the PID (profile signature or ID) is the encrypted description of the user rights available on the key. Each key has a unique PID. Under Current profile summary, all of the above information is summarised.
4.2.2 Updating Licence Keys Atoll licence manager enables administrators to update licence keys by loading new key programming data from ALIC files provided by Forsk. To update a licence key, you must have the ALIC file sent by Forsk. Do not attempt to reprogram a licence key without full information and support from Forsk customer support.
To update a licence key: 1. Close Atoll. 2. Go to the Atoll installation folder. 3. Run Lic.exe. The licence manager opens (see Figure 4.1 on page 42). 4. Under Available licences, select the key to update. If the key does not appear in the available licences list, check that it is plugged in to your computer. 5. Under Key programming, click Load. The Open dialogue appears. 6. Select the ALIC file provided by Forsk. 7. Click Open. The key is updated.
5 Managing Databases In Atoll, you can work with standalone documents, i.e., documents without any back-end database, or with documents connected to databases. Standalone documents are more portable, however a back-end database is required when working in a multi-user environment. In multi-user environments, several users work on the same project and a central data storage is necessary for keeping the data modifications made by a team radio planning and optimisation engineers. Atoll enables you create databases, upgrade them to newer versions, archive and refresh data with databases, manage and resolve data conflicts, and create and work with multi-level databases. A database server can store one or more database. For example, a GSM, a UMTS, and a microwave links database can be stored on the same database server using the same RDBMS (Oracle, for example). In this chapter, the following are explained: • • • • • • • •
"Atoll Database Templates" on page 45 "Atoll Management Console" on page 46 "Creating New Databases" on page 48 "Upgrading Existing Databases" on page 50 "Working With Multi-level Databases" on page 52 "Setting Database Access Privileges" on page 57 "Managing Data Modifications History" on page 57 "Using Oracle With Atoll" on page 60
5.1 Atoll Database Templates All the technology modules available in Atoll (GSM, UMTS, LTE, CDMA2000, TD-SCDMA, WiMAX, and Microwave Radio Links) are based on database templates. These templates are used for creating Atoll documents with the appropriate data structure required for planning for any technology. Databases (using RDBMS) may then be created from any Atoll document. These databases are hence also based on the data structure defined by the Atoll database templates. In each new major release, database templates undergo modifications required to support new features. These modifications are applied to existing Atoll documents and databases by Atoll and the Atoll Management Console, respectively. It is also possible to upgrade an existing database manually, but due to the complex nature of the upgrade process, it is highly recommended to use the Atoll Management Console for upgrading existing databases. Each database template is an MS Access MDB file located in the templates folder in the Atoll installation folder. For the list of tables and fields, and their relationships, in each database template, see: • • • • • • • •
"GSM GPRS EDGE Data Structure" on page 231 "UMTS HSPA Data Structure" on page 263 "LTE Data Structure" on page 295 "3GPP Multi-RAT Data Structure" on page 325 "CDMA2000 Data Structure" on page 335 "TD-SCDMA Data Structure" on page 365 "WiMAX Data Structure" on page 399 "Microwave Links Data Structure" on page 429. Database template files must not be modified without consulting Forsk customer support.
• • • •
The relationships in the database schema figures are represented by arrows. These unidirectional arrows should be read as: = n or ∞ 1 In the tables, primary keys are listed in bold and italic characters. In the database schema figures, primary keys are in bold and underlined characters, and required fields are in bold characters. If you export the content of an ATL document which is already connected to a database, to a another RDBMS (for example, if you export a document connected to an Oracle database to Sybase or Microsoft Access), some field types will be converted according to the above table but this conversion does not have an impact on the document in Atoll.
The following table lists the types of fields used in Atoll database templates, their sizes, and the equivalent field types and sizes in different RDBMS:
* Lengths for these fields are specified in parentheses in the database structure tables. If you export the contents of an Atoll document, already connected to a database, to another RDBMS (for example, if you export a document connected to an Oracle database to SQL Server), some field types will be converted according to the above table. This conversion does not have any impact on the document in Atoll. For more information on the Atoll Management Console and upgrading databases, see "Atoll Management Console" on page 46 and "Upgrading Existing Databases" on page 50, respectively.
5.2 Atoll Management Console The Atoll Management Console provides the database administrator the possibility of globally managing the database with the easy-to-use step-by-step procedures which use wizard interfaces. The Atoll Management Console lets you: • • • • •
Create databases (see "Creating New Databases" on page 48) Upgrade database structures from one major version to the next (see "Upgrading Existing Databases" on page 50) Work with multi-level databases (see "Working With Multi-level Databases" on page 52) Manage data modifications history in databases (see "Managing Data Modifications History" on page 57) Manage user accounts and access rights (see "Managing User Accounts and Access Rights" on page 67)
The Atoll Management Console supports: • •
Oracle Microsoft SQL Server
The Atoll Management Console can be installed with Atoll. For more information, see "Installing Atoll and Components" on page 25. You can run the Atoll Management Console from the Windows Start menu program group or by double-clicking Atollmgmt.msc in the Atoll installation folder. The Atoll Management Console runs using the Microsoft Management Console environment. When the Atoll Management Console is run for the first time, you must register your database server in order to have the databases installed on the server to be available in the Atoll Management Console. To register a database server: 1. In the Atoll Management Console window, in the left pane, right-click the Database item under the Administration Atoll. The context menu appears. 2. Select Register a New Server. The Data Link Properties dialogue appears. 3. Click the Provider tab. On the Provider tab, select the provider for your database server depending on whether it is Oracle or SQL Server.
Figure 5.1: Data Link Properties dialogue - Provider Tab 4. Click Next. On the Connection tab, enter the server name, and the user name and password required to access the database server. You can check to see if the entered information is correct by clicking the Test Connection button. 5. Click OK. The selected database server is registered and available in the Atoll Management Console (see Figure 5.2 on page 47). You now have access to the features offered by the Atoll Management Console.
Figure 5.2: Atoll Management Console The tree in the left pane lists the registered database servers. Registered database servers may be connected ( disconnected ( ).
) or
The right pane lists the databases available on the connected database server currently selected in the left pane. The current user may be the owner of one of the listed databases. The user name of the owner of a database appears in parentheses in the title bar. One Oracle user can create and own one database. For each new database, you must create a new user owner of the database. The following details are available for databases created or upgraded using the Atoll Management Console: • •
Whether the database corresponds to the current Atoll version ( the current version. The type of the database: master or project.
) or a previous version (
), not yet upgraded to
A master database may have one or more project databases created from and connected to it. For more information on master and project databases, see "Working With Multi-level Databases" on page 52. • •
The technology of the network modelled by the database. The path of the shared path loss folder.
To view details of a database: 1. In the right pane, right-click the database in the list. The context menu appears. 2. Select Properties. The database Properties dialogue appears. 3. The Properties dialogue contains two tabs: • •
General tab: The General tab displays the Name, Description, Owner, Type, and Version of the database. Statistics tab: The Statistics tab displays the number of records in each table of the database.
5.3 Creating New Databases New databases may be created using the Atoll Management Console or by directly exporting a document to a database from Atoll. In this section, the following are explained: • •
"Creating a New Database Using the Atoll Management Console" on page 48 "Creating a New Database Using Atoll" on page 49
5.3.1 Creating a New Database Using the Atoll Management Console You can create new databases in Oracle and SQL Server using the Atoll Management Console. You must have administrator rights to the database and to the server for creating new databases.
To create a new database: 1. In the Atoll Management Console window, in the left pane, right-click the database server on which you want to create a new database. The context menu appears. 2. Select New > Database. The New Database Wizard dialogue appears.
3. Click Next. The Specify the database owner page appears. 4. Select Use the current connection if you wish to create a new database using the current user, or select Create a new user and enter a Name and Password to create a new user that will be owner of the new database. 5. Click Next. The Name the database and specify a network type page appears. 6. Enter a Name for the new database and select the Network type. The Network type can be one of the database templates installed with Atoll. Atoll and the Atoll Management Console must have the same version. This means that the Atoll Management Console can create databases based on the database templates installed with Atoll of the same version. 7. Click Next. The Specify units and coordinate systems page appears. 8. Select a Transmission power unit and a Reception threshold unit. 9. Under Coordinate systems, select a Cartographic projection system and the System to be used in the database. 10. Click Next. The Ready to create database page appears. This page provides a summary of the selected parameters. 11. Click Execute. The Atoll Management Console creates the new database with the defined parameters on the selected database server. A database created using the Atoll Management Console contains an ATOLL_ADMIN table with the following structure: Field
Type
Description
NAME
Text (50)
The name of the database
DESCRIPTION
Text (255)
Description of the database
ATOLL_VERSION
Text (10)
The current version of Atoll
ATOLL_BUILD
Integer
Current build of Atoll
ATOLL_DBTYPE
Text (10)
Type of Atoll database (i.e., Master or Project)
ATOLL_TEMPLATE
Text (50)
Atoll database template used to create the database
DBSCHEMA
Memo
An image of the schema of the original database
Among other uses, the ATOLL_ADMIN table is used to speed up the database upgrade to the next version. This table stores the data required by the Atoll Management Console for database upgrade. Databases created with Atoll, instead of the Atoll Management Console, and databases that have never been upgraded using the Atoll Management Console contain a smaller ATOLL_ADMIN table, with just the NAME, ATOLL_VERSION, and ATOLL_BUILD fields. Upgrading such databases using the Atoll Management Console may take a long time because the Atoll Management Console must search for the data required for the upgrade in the whole database. For more information on upgrading databases, see "Upgrading Existing Databases" on page 50. All the tables in a database created using the Atoll Management Console (except the COORDSYS and UNITS tables) contain a non-modifiable, integer DB_RECORD_ID field. This field is used to store the ID of every record in the table. It is not added to Microsoft Access databases.
5.3.2 Creating a New Database Using Atoll You can create new databases in all supported RDBMS using Atoll. To create a new database: 1. Run Atoll. 2. Create a new Atoll document or open an existing one. The new database will be created from this document. 3. Select Document > Database > Export. The Export to a Database dialogue appears. 4. In the Export to a Database dialogue, select the database type in the Save as type list. 5. Depending on the selected database type, enter the user name and password of the database owner. 6. Click Save. Atoll asks whether you wish to connect the document to the new database. 7. Click Yes or No. Atoll creates a new database based on the document. A database created using Atoll contains an ATOLL_ADMIN table with the following structure:
Before creating the database, make sure that you have defined the coordinate systems and units in the source document. Before creating the database, make sure that you have added any required custom fields. Custom fields of the source document are created in the new database. If you want to add a custom field to the data structure after you have created the database, you will have to add it directly in the database and not through Atoll. Custom fields added to a database are available to users connected to the database when they create a new Atoll document from the database or refresh an existing one. You can use the ODBC interface (used by Sybase as well) to access all databases that accept UDL files and the ODBC interface.
In order to be able to archive to and refresh data from a Sybase 12.5.0 database using the ODBC driver: 1. Open the Windows registry using regedit.exe. 2. Add a "string" called "WorkArounds2" in: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ODBC\ODBC.INI\Sybase Where "Sybase" represents the logical name used for the ODBC connection. 3. Assign the value "152" to "WorkArounds2", i.e., WorkArounds2 = 152.
5.4 Upgrading Existing Databases In each new major release, data structure changes must be made in the database in order to support the new features added in the version. The data structures of standalone Atoll documents, i.e., documents not connected to any database are upgraded when they are opened in the new Atoll version. You can upgrade Oracle and SQL Server databases using the Atoll Management Console. Do not skip a major Atoll version. For example, if you are currently using Atoll 2.7.x, you should first upgrade the database to Atoll 2.8.x before upgrading to Atoll 3.1.x. Upgrading your database will be simpler if you do not skip a major version. If you skip or have skipped an intermediate major version, you must upgrade your database twice in order to make it compatible with the new version. If you are upgrading a database which was neither created nor already upgraded (at least once) using the Atoll Management Console, see "Upgrading Databases for the First Time" on page 52 first.
The Microwave Radio Links template now supports Radio Series. Similar microwave radios belong to the same radio series. In order to organise the microwave radios (microwave equipment) in radio series before the database upgrade: 1. In Atoll 2.8.x, add a custom field named FAMILY of type Text (50) to the MWEquipments table. 2. Enter the radio series names in this field for each radio, i.e., group the radios of the same series under the same radio series name in the FAMILY field. Without this manual organisation of the microwave radios into radio series, the database upgrade will create one radio series for each microwave radio. To upgrade a database using the Atoll Management Console: 1. In the Atoll Management Console window, in the right pane, right-click the database that you want to upgrade. The context menu appears. 2. Select Upgrade Database. The Database Update Wizard dialogue appears. The Database Upgrade Wizard displays the current database version and the version to which the database will be upgraded.
3. Click Next. The Name the database page appears. 4. Enter a Name and description for the database. 5. Click Next. The Database Upgrade Wizard reads the database to determine the Atoll database template using which it was created. If there is more than one template corresponding to the network, select the template to be used for the upgrade and click Next. The Atoll Management Console upgrades the database. If some of the tables in a database have been replaced by views, the Database Upgrade Wizard asks to select the views to upgrade. Select the views that you want the Atoll Management Console to upgrade and click Execute. If, for example, the definition of a view is given by the condition: Select Field1, Field2 from Table1 where (Condition1); The wizard first upgrades the schema of Table1 and then upgrades the definition of the view. The upgraded definition will take the newly added fields into account. Obsolete fields in the data structure are automatically deleted from the database by the Atoll Management Console during the upgrade. If you use the Atoll Management Console’s history management tool, you must repair the upgraded database in order to continue using this tool. For more information, see "Managing Data Modifications History" on page 57. Once the database has been upgraded to the new version, 1. Install the new Atoll versions for the end-users, and 2. Ask all the end-users to fully refresh data in their Atoll documents from the database. When users open their existing documents in the new Atoll version, they are asked whether they want to upgrade the documents’ data structures to the new version or to disconnect the documents from the database. On selecting the upgrade option, Atoll upgrades the document data structures to make them compatible with the new version. Notes on Document Data Structure Upgrade •
• •
• • •
The data structure of an Atoll document not connected to any database is automatically upgraded to the new Atoll version when the document is opened and saved in the new version. Once saved, it is not possible to open the document in an earlier Atoll version. The data structure of an Atoll document connected to a database not yet upgraded to the new version can be upgraded by: • Either opening the document in the new Atoll version, disconnecting it from the database, and saving it in the new version, or • Upgrading the database to the new version and then opening and saving the document in the new Atoll version. Once disconnected from its database, it is not possible to reconnect the document to any database. Obsolete fields in the data structure of a document not connected to any database are automatically deleted by Atoll when the document is saved in the new version. If the database has been upgraded to the new version but an Atoll document connected to the database has not yet been upgraded, it is possible to open the document in the previous Atoll version as read-only. It is also not possible to interact with the upgraded database (archive, refresh, etc., are not allowed). To make the document write-accessible in the previous Atoll version, it must be disconnected from the upgraded database.
It is possible to upgrade an existing database manually (not recommended) by adding and deleting tables and fields as required by the new version. However, due to the complex nature of the upgrade process, it is highly recommended to use the Atoll Management Console for upgrading existing databases. For information on manually upgrading a database, see "Upgrading Databases Manually" on page 52.
Upgrading Databases for the First Time If you want to upgrade a database which was neither created nor already upgraded (at least once) using the Atoll Management Console, you must first upgrade the database to the same version as the current version of the database. This is required so that the Atoll Management console adds the required information to the database to make it upgradable to newer versions. To upgrade the database: 1. Before installing the new version of Atoll, install the Atoll Management Console (if not already installed) compatible with the existing version of Atoll. 2. Upgrade the database (as described in "Upgrading Existing Databases" on page 50) using the Atoll Management Console to the existing version of Atoll. The Atoll Management Console adds additional fields to the ATOLL_ADMIN table and DB_RECORD_ID fields in all the tables, as described in "Creating a New Database Using the Atoll Management Console" on page 48. Once the Atoll Management Console has performed the necessary modifications, you can upgrade the database to the new Atoll version. 3. Install the new version of Atoll and the Atoll Management Console. 4. Upgrade the database (as described in "Upgrading Existing Databases" on page 50), using the new version of the Atoll Management Console, to the new version of Atoll. When a new version of the Atoll Management Console is installed, the setup overwrites the Windows registery key that stores the information about the Admin.dll file, and the existing version of the Atoll Management Console can no longer be used. If you have already installed the new version of the Atoll Management Console, you will have to register the old Admin.dll again, upgrade the database to the existing version, register the new Admin.dll, and upgrade the database to the new version using the new Atoll Management Console. For the Atoll Management Console to be able to recognize obsolete or deleted fields from database tables, it is imperative that the ATOLL_ADMIN table exist in the database. This means that when upgrading a database for the first time using the Atoll Management Console, the database administrator will have to remove the obsolete fields manually. Once the Atoll Management Console has been used to upgrade a database, it will be able to recognize obsolete or deleted fields in the following upgrades. Upgrading Databases Manually This procedure is for information only. It should used if and only if, for some reason, automatic upgrade of the database using the Atoll Management Console is not possible. •
Using the previous Atoll version: a. Create a new document from the database. b. Disconnect the document from the database. c. Save and close the document.
•
Using the new Atoll version: d. Open the disconnected document of the previous Atoll version. e. Atoll upgrades the document data structure to make it compatible with the new version. f. Create a new database as explained in "Creating a New Database Using Atoll" on page 49. If you are upgrading your database using a script based on the data structure modifications listed in Part 3 of the Administrator Manual, you must also add the ATOLL_ADMIN table to the database. For more information on this table, see "Creating a New Database Using the Atoll Management Console" on page 48.
5.5 Working With Multi-level Databases Atoll Management Console allows you to set up and work with multi-level databases. In this optional database architecture, the master database is not directly accessible to end-users. Groups of end-users work with their respective project databases which are in turn connected to the master database. The end-users archive data to and refresh data from their respective project databases, and the database administrator manages the connections and data exchange between the project databases and the master database.
For example, you may have a country-wide master database and more than one regional project databases. End-users can here work with their local region’s project database, and would not have to unnecessarily load country-wide data.
Figure 5.4: Working With a Single Level Database Project databases are intermediate databases created from a common master database. A project database contains the original master database, that remains hidden from the end-users, and an copy of the master database accessible to the endusers. When a user modifies a record, only its accessible copy is modified in the project database. The original value in the master database remains unchanged until the database administrator archives all the modifications from the project databases to the master database.
Figure 5.5: Working With Project Databases Project databases can be used to improve performance and ensure data security and reliability. Instead allowing all the endusers to work directly with the master database, one or many project databases may be created with copies of the entire master database or a part of the master database corresponding to a given physical location or region. Creating and working with project databases restricts the number of users who have access to the master database. This reduces the risk of conflicts in the database as only the database administrator can archive modifications from project databases to the master database. For example, if a country-wide network database is accessible to all end-users: • • • •
The probability of human error increases with the number of users who can modify data. The probability of conflicts increases with the number of users accessing the database. The performance is reduced because the entire network is loaded every time a user accesses the database. For routine city-wide planning, an end-user does not require the entire country’s database to be loaded.
Project databases may be created using filters on sites, thus allowing users to work with regional databases. A possible scenario is depicted in the figure below:
Figure 5.6: Multiple Project Databases From a Single Master Database Multi-level databases may be set up using the Atoll Management Console with Oracle. In this section, the following are explained: • • •
"Creating Project Databases" on page 54 "Archiving Project Databases to Master Databases" on page 56 "Refreshing Project Databases from Master Databases" on page 57
5.5.1 Creating Project Databases You can create project databases using the Atoll Management Console with Oracle. For creating a project database, you must have enough rights to be able to create new tables in the master database schema.
To create a project database from an existing master database: 1. In the Atoll Management Console window, in the right pane, right-click the master database from which you wish to create a project database. The context menu appears. 2. Select Create a Project Database. The Project Database Creation Wizard dialogue appears. 3. Click Next. The Specify the server and the owner of the project database page appears. 4. Select the Destination server for the project database. 5. Under Owner, select Current user if you wish to create the new project database using the current user, or select Create a new user and enter a User name and Password to create a new user that will be owner of the new project database. Some versions of Oracle let you create a new user through this dialogue but the new user is not assigned DBA rights, which makes the new user unable to create the project database. Therefore, it is recommended to create the new user with DBA rights directly in the database before create the project database using the Atoll Management Console using the new user account. 6. Click Next. The Name the database page appears. 7. Enter a Name and Description for the new project database. 8. Click Next. The Specify the sites to include in the project database page appears. 9. On this page, choose from one of the following options: •
Select this option if you wish to create a project database that contains all the data of the master database. •
Include a site list contained in the master database Select this option if you wish to create a project database containing the network data corresponding to the sites included in a site list of the master database, and select a site list. This option is only available when at least one site list exists in the master database.
•
Select the sites to include using an SQL condition Select this option if you wish to create a project database containing the network data corresponding to the sites that verify an SQL condition (for example, sites that have a common parameter or flag), and enter the SQL condition.
•
Include the sites contained within a polygon contained in a file Select this option if you wish to create a project database containing the network data corresponding to the sites that are located inside a polygon, and select the file containing the polygon to use.
10. Click Next. The Atoll Management Console creates the new project database with the defined parameters on the selected database server. The project database will have the type PROJECT listed in the Atoll Management Console window.
Figure 5.7: New Project Database Wizard A project database created using the Atoll Management Console contains an ATOLL_ADMIN_PRJ table, in addition to the ATOLL_ADMIN table, with the following structure: Field
Type
Description
NAME
Text (50)
The name of the project database
MASTER_CONNECTION
Text (255)
Connection parameters to the master database
MASTER_DBSCHEMA
Text (50)
The name of the original schema of the master database
SEL_METHOD
Short
Data extraction method used to select the sites to include in the project database
SEL_PARAM
Text (255)
Site selection method parameters (the SQL condition, if any)
You can view the details stored in the ATOLL_ADMIN_PRJ table in the project database properties. To view the above details of a project database: 1. In the right pane, right-click the project database in the list. The context menu appears. 2. Select Properties. The database Properties dialogue appears. 3. The Properties dialogue contains three tabs: • •
•
General tab: The General tab displays the Name, Description, Owner, Type, and Version of the database. Project Database tab: Under Source master database, the Project Database tab displays the Connection settings to and the Owner of the master database. Under Site selection, this tab displays the site filtering Method and Settings used for creating the project database. Statistics tab: The Statistics tab displays the number of records in each table of the project database.
The project database contains a copy of all the original tables of the master database. The names of the original tables are prefixed with "O_". For example, the ANTENNAS table of the master database is stored in the project database under the name O_ANTENNAS. The COORDSYS and UNITS are not copied to the project database because their contents cannot be different from those of the master database. All the tables in a project database contain a non-modifiable, integer O_RECORD_ID field and a Boolean O_CHANGED field. The O_RECORD_ID field is used to locate records in the master database. Modified records are archived in master database using the O_RECORD_ID of the project database and DB_RECORD_ID of the master database. The O_CHANGED field is set to TRUE for records modified in the project database.
5.5.2 Archiving Project Databases to Master Databases Changes made in the project databases can be archived to the master database using the Atoll Management Console. The Archive dialogue lets you select changes you want to archive. To archive the changes from a project database to its master database: 1. In the Atoll Management Console window, in the right pane, right-click the project database from which you wish to archive changes to its master database. The context menu appears. 2. Select Archive. If pending changes exist, the Archive dialogue appears. The Archive dialogue lists the records of the project database for which the O_CHANGED field is TRUE. 3. In the Archive dialogue, you can do the following: • • • • • •
Select a site list in Filter by site list to filter the pending changes by a site list. Click Archive All to archive all the changes to the master database. Select the check boxes to the left of the changes that you wish to archive and click Archive Sel. to archive only the selected changes. Click Undo All to overwrite all the changes in the project database with data from the master database. Select the check boxes to the left of the changes that you wish to undo and click Undo Sel. to overwrite only the selected changes in the project database with data from the master database. Select the Check conflicts check box to see whether conflicts occurred during the archive. A conflict occurs when the project database contains a different original value of a field than the current value of the field in the master database. This may occur if the master database has been updated with changes from another source and the project database has not yet been refreshed with data from the master database.
Under Errors, Atoll Management Console displays errors that occurred during archive. 4. Once archive is complete, click Close.
5.5.3 Refreshing Project Databases from Master Databases Project databases can be refreshed with data from the master database using the Atoll Management Console. To refresh a project database with data from its master database: 1. In the Atoll Management Console window, in the right pane, right-click the project database that you wish to refresh with data from its master database. The context menu appears. 2. Select Refresh. If pending changes exist, the Refresh a Project Database dialogue appears. 3. In the Refresh a Project Database dialogue, you can: •
•
Select Refresh unmodified data only to keep any changes in the project database and only update unmodified records from the master database. During the refresh, the Atoll Management Console will reload records from the master database for which the O_CHANGED field is FALSE in the project database. Select Cancel your changes and reload all data from the master database to overwrite modified and unmodified records in the project database with data from the master database.
1. Click OK. The project database is refreshed with data from the master database.
5.6 Setting Database Access Privileges You can assign different levels of privileges to different users for accessing (reading/writing) tables and views of a database. You can grant user privileges for Database, Table, Column, and Row levels keeping the following in mind: •
Database Level: Users trying to create a new Atoll document from a database are provided a list of available databases to select from. The list can be limited to a few databases based on the user connection properties (log in).
•
Table Level: For consistency reasons, all the tables available in an Atoll database must be readable by all the users who have access to the database. However, write access (INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE) may be granted on a limited number of tables.
•
Column Level: Similar to table level, all the columns of all the tables in an Atoll database must be readable and selectable by all the users who have access to the database. Different write permissions may be granted for columns of the tables. For example, custom fields may be assigned read and write permissions without restrictions.
•
Row Level: Row level permissions can be set by defining custom views on Atoll tables. Access to these views can be based on user connection properties (log in), on external table references, or on the geographic locations of sites (e.g., through polygons, or when using the spatial features of databases).
All of these permissions can be set as regular SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE privileges on database objects. Triggers can also be used to prevent users making certain actions on the database. Different permissions for different users can be granted directly or through database roles. Database roles enable you to define permission templates, which can then be assigned to existing or new users of the database. You can use the Atoll Management Console for defining user access rights to database tables and elements in the Atoll GUI. For more information on managing user access rights, see "Managing User Accounts and Access Rights" on page 67.
5.7 Managing Data Modifications History The Atoll Management Console allows you to keep and manage the history of modifications made in the network data by different users. The history management tool keeps track of all the modifications made in the following Atoll tables: Technology
You can, however, enable or disable history management for table as required (see "Enabling/Disabling Data Modifications History Management" on page 59 for more information). If you wish, you can also purge old data modifications history (see "Purging Old Data Modifications History" on page 60 for more information). The history management tool is available for Oracle databases. The following section describes how to set up the history management tool for an Oracle database using the Atoll Management Console.
5.7.1 Setting Up Data Modifications History Management When you set up history management for any database, the Atoll Management Console adds new tables to the database structure. For each tracked table, it adds a corresponding history table that has the same name as the tracked table with the suffix "_H". Each history table has the same structure as the corresponding tracked table, but with the following four additional fields. These fields enable the Atoll Management Console to store the modifications made by users to each tracked table: Field
Type
Description
HISTORY_ID
Integer
A unique ID of the modification history record
MODIFIED_BY
Text (50)
The user who made the modification
MODIFIED_DATE
Date
The date when the modification was made
HISTORY_STATUS
Text (10)
Status of the modification history record
The above fields are also added to all the tracked tables in order to store information about the latest modification. Therefore, opening any tracked table, you can see when a record was last modified, by whom, and the type of modification. To set up data modifications history management for a database: 1. In the Atoll Management Console window, in the right pane, right-click the database for which you wish to set up data modifications history management. The context menu appears. 2. Select Manage Data Modifications History. The Data Modifications History Management dialogue appears. 3. Click Yes when asked whether you wish to make your database compatible with the data modifications history tool. The Atoll Management Console updates the database structure to make it compatible with the data modifications history tool. Data modifications history is enabled for the database. Once finished, it opens the Data Modifications History Management dialogue (Figure 5.9 on page 59). This dialogue lists all the tables for which the data modifications history management has been enabled, the total numbers of records in these tables, and the status of the history management. All the modifications made in the tables listed in "Managing Data Modifications History" on page 57 are stored in the history tables added to the database. If you wish, you can disable the data modifications history management for any table. For more information, see "Enabling/ Disabling Data Modifications History Management" on page 59.
Figure 5.9: Data Modifications History Management Dialogue
5.7.2 Enabling/Disabling Data Modifications History Management You can enable or disable data modifications history management for any table. You can enable or disable history management for each individual table. When history management is enabled for a table, the MODIFIED_BY, MODIFIED_DATE, and HISTORY_STATUS fields are updated with each modification, and a copy of each modification is stored in the history table corresponding to the table. When history management is disabled for a table, the MODIFIED_BY, MODIFIED_DATE, and HISTORY_STATUS fields are still updated with each modification, but the history of modifications is not stored in the corresponding history table. To enable data modifications history management for a table: 1. In the Atoll Management Console window, in the right pane, right-click the database for which you wish to enable data modifications history management. The context menu appears. 2. Select Manage Data Modifications History. The Data Modifications History Management dialogue appears. 3. In the Data Modifications History Management dialogue, right-click the table for which you wish to enable data modifications history management. The context menu appears. 4. Select Enable in the context menu. Data modifications history management is now enabled for this table. The Status in the Data Modifications History Management dialogue is set to OK for this table. To disable data modifications history management for a table: 1. In the Atoll Management Console window, in the right pane, right-click the database for which you wish to disable data modifications history management. The context menu appears. 2. Select Manage Data Modifications History. The Data Modifications History Management dialogue appears. 3. In the Data Modifications History Management dialogue, right-click the table for which you wish to enable data modifications history management. The context menu appears. 4. Select Disable in the context menu. History management is now disabled for this table. The Status in the Data Modifications History Management dialogue is set to Deactivated for this table.
5.7.3 Updating After Data Structure Upgrade When you modify the structure of a tracked database table (for which data modifications history management is enabled), either automatically upgrading your database using the Atoll Management Console, or manually by adding or removing fields, or by modifying a field type, the corresponding data modifications history management table becomes invalid and has to be updated to match the new structure of the tracked table. The Status column of the Data Modifications History Management dialogue shows an error for the tracked table whose history management table does not match its structure. To update the data modifications history management tables: 1. In the Atoll Management Console window, in the right pane, right-click the database whose tables you wish to update. The context menu appears. 2. Select Manage Data Modifications History. The Data Modifications History Management dialogue appears. 3. In the Data Modifications History Management dialogue, right-click the table that you wish to update. The context menu appears.
4. Select Install/Repair in the context menu. The Atoll Management Console repairs the data structure of the history management table to match the structure of the corresponding tracked table.
5.7.4 Purging Old Data Modifications History All the modifications made by all the users are stored in the history management tables. Therefore, these tables may quickly become very large and may require a lot of disk space. You can, if you wish, purge old data modifications history (records) from these tables in order to gain space. To purge old data modifications history from a history management table: 1. In the Atoll Management Console window, in the right pane, right-click the database in which you wish to purge old data modifications history. The context menu appears. 2. Select Manage Data Modifications History. The Data Modifications History Management dialogue appears. 3. In the Data Modifications History Management dialogue, right-click the table for which you wish to purge old data modifications history. The context menu appears. 4. Select Purge in the context menu. The Record Purge dialogue appears (Figure 5.10 on page 60).
Figure 5.10: Record Purge Dialogue 5. Under Purge data modifications recorded before, move the slider to select from which date onwards you wish to keep the data modification history records. All the data modification history records before this date will be deleted. Number of records shows the number of records that will be left after the purge. Data size shows the size of the records that will be left after the purge. 6. Under Options, select the Keep creation and deletion records check box if you wish to keep the records of creation and deletion. 7. Click Purge. All the history records before the selected date are deleted from the history table. If you selected the Keep creation and deletion records check box, creation and deletion records before the selected date are not deleted.
5.8 Using Oracle With Atoll This section provides additional information about using Oracle databases with Atoll. To set up an Oracle database for use with Atoll: 1. Install Oracle on the database server and client computers. 2. Create an empty database, to store the schema and data that will be created afterwards. In the following, the database name "AtollDB" and SID "AtollDB" will be used. 3. Add an entry in the tnsnames.ora file to enable communication with the Atoll database, i.e., define the service name "AtollDB". The service name "AtollDB" must be specified to: • • •
60
Export an Atoll document to an Oracle database (Server = Service name) Open an Atoll document from an "AtollDB" database (Server = Service name) Use Oracle tools to manage the "AtollDB" database (Host name = Service name)
4. Create a tablespace called "Atoll". 5. Create a project account. To create a project account: a. Run DBA Studio on the database server (or a client computer with Oracle administration tools). b. Open the Add Database to Tree dialogue. c. In the Add Database To Tree dialogue, select Add selected databases from your local tnsnames.ora file. d. Select the "AtollDB" service. e. Open the connection dialogue for the "AtollDB" service. f.
Enter Username = "system" and Password = "manager".
g. To create a new user, right-click the User folder in the Security folder and select Create. h. Create a new user (project account) with administrator rights and privileges. i.
Specify "Atoll" as the default tablespace and choose DBA for its privileges.
This account will be used to create Atoll document tables and will be the owner of these tables. It is usually helpful to assign a name to the project account that indicates the type of project that you want to store (GSM, UMTS, etc.).
6. Create database tables in the empty database "AtollDB" using the project account created in step 5.. For more information, see "Creating a New Database Using Atoll" on page 49. 7. Create user accounts. To create a project account: a. Run DBA Studio on the database server (or a client computer with Oracle administration tools). b. Open the Add Database to Tree dialogue. c. In the Add Database To Tree dialogue, select Add selected databases from your local tnsnames.ora file. d. Select the "AtollDB" service. e. Open the connection dialogue for the "AtollDB" service. f.
Log on with the project account.
g. To create a new user, right-click the User folder in the Security folder and select Create. h. Create new user accounts with appropriate rights and privileges. These user accounts do not own tables, but only specify the access rights to the tables owned by the project account. i.
Specify "Atoll" as the default tablespace for the new user accounts.
The database will be accessible through any of the user accounts from any client computer. In some cases, Atoll displays too many decimal values for fields of type "Float" in documents connected to Oracle databases. This type of display is not due to any error in Atoll. You can fix this problem by: • •
In Atoll, setting the display precision of floating point values the Atoll.ini option described in "Setting the Display Precision of Floating Point Values" on page 175. In Oracle, • •
If the database is new and the fields are empty, changing the field type from Float to Number and fix the number of decimal values for it in Oracle. If the database fields contain data, updating the field data by rounding the values stored in them: UPDATE TABLE_NAME SET FIELD_NAME = ROUND(FIELD_NAME,2);
Once this is done, you have to refresh document data from the database in order to fix the display problem in Atoll.
5.9 Appendices The first appendix shows how to use SQL for Oracle database customisation and the second appendix shows how to set up databases for co-planning taking the example of GSM and UMTS MS Access databases.
5.9.1 Appendix 1: Advanced Customisation You can use SQL in order to manage access to and share the Sites table (example 1), or to restrict the connection to a set of transmitters for some users (example 2). To implement the following two examples, you must log on as the owner of the tables through SQL Plus 8. Example 1: Managing Site Sharing Assumptions: • • • •
To share the Sites table: 1. Create the AtollADMIN.SITES table and copy all sites from AtollADMINGSM.SITES to AtollADMIN.SITES. SQL > connect AtollADMIN/ADMIN@AtollDB; SQL > create table AtollADMIN.SITES as select * from AtollADMINGSM.SITES; SQL > create unique index AtollADMIN_SITES on AtollADMIN.SITES(NAME); 2. Replace the AtollADMINGSM.SITES table by an AtollADMINGSM.SITES view. SQL > connect AtollADMINGSM/ADMINGSM@AtollDB; SQL > drop table AtollADMINGSM.SITES; SQL > connect AtollADMIN/ADMIN@AtollDB; SQL > grant delete on AtollADMIN.SITES to AtollADMINGSM with grant option; SQL > grant insert on AtollADMIN.SITES to AtollADMINGSM with grant option; SQL > grant select on AtollADMIN.SITES to AtollADMINGSM with grant option; SQL > grant update on AtollADMIN.SITES to AtollADMINGSM with grant option; SQL > create view AtollADMINGSM.SITES as select * from AtollADMIN.SITES; 3. Follow the same procedure for UMTS (AtollADMIN.SITES already created). SQL > connect AtollADMINUMTS/ADMINUMTS@AtollDB; SQL > drop table AtollADMINUMTS.SITES; SQL > connect AtollADMIN/ADMIN@AtollDB; SQL > grant delete on AtollADMIN.SITES to AtollADMINUMTS with grant option; SQL > grant insert on AtollADMIN.SITES to AtollADMINUMTS with grant option; SQL > grant select on AtollADMIN.SITES to AtollADMINUMTS with grant option; SQL > grant update on AtollADMIN.SITES to AtollADMINUMTS with grant option; SQL > create view AtollADMINUMTS.SITES as select * from AtollADMIN.SITES; 4. Commit. SQL > commit; Example 2: Managing Users by Postal Code To restrict access to transmitters for some users by postal code: 1. Add a ‘POSTCODE’ field to the SITES table. SQL > alter table SITES add (POSTCODE number); 2. Rename the SITES table to be able to hide it by a view.
SQL > rename SITES to PRIVATE_SITES; 3. Create a POSTCODETABLE table to link users and postcodes (one user may be linked to several postcodes). SQL > create table POSTCODETABLE (USERNAME varchar2(30), POSTCODE number); You can fill this table using this instruction. SQL > insert into POSTCODETABLE values (‘USER1’, 75); 4. Create a view owned by this user hiding the actual SITES table through these commands. SQL > create view SITES as select * from PRIVATE_SITES where POSTCODE in (select POSTCODE from POSTCODETABLE where USERNAME =USER) with check option; "with check option" is very important as it specifies that insert and update operations performed through the view must result in rows that the view query can select. 5. Hide the TRANSMITTERS table, so that Atoll can only select transmitters whose associated sites are present in the SITES view. SQL > rename TRANSMITTERS to PRIVATE_TRANSMITTERS; SQL > create view TRANSMITTERS as select * from PRIVATE_TRANSMITTERS where SITE_NAME in (select NAME from SITES); 6. Commit. SQL > commit;
The error message "ORA-01402: view WITH CHECK OPTION - clause violation" appears if you try to archive a record that does not match the project.
5.9.2 Appendix 2: Setting Up Databases for Co-planning Two co-planning approaches are possible in Atoll: •
Co-planning GSM, UMTS, and LTE using a unified multi-technology data structure, i.e., working with a 3GPP Multi-RAT document.
•
Co-planning any two radio technologies (GSM, UMTS, LTE, CDMA2000, TD-SCDMA, and WiMAX), with two separate data structures, by linking Atoll documents.
In terms of database, while the first approach provides an integrated multi-technology co-planning environment, the second requires setting up sharing of the Sites table between the databases of the two technologies being co-planned. The Sites table must be shared between the databases of the two technologies being co-planned so that the sites where sectors of both technologies are installed are listed only once in a common Sites table. In other words, the Sites tables in the databases of the two technologies must be views of a common Sites table. This section describes table sharing between GSM and UMTS, although the same description can be applied to any two radio technology modules of Atoll You can create views to share tables that have the same structure in the databases of the two technologies being co-planned, i.e., the Sites and Antennas tables. In the following, we assume that the Sites tables of the GSM and UMTS documents contain the same data and that two users, named GSMUser and UMTSUser in this example, exist in the databases. To set up a shared Sites table for a GSM-UMTS co-planning project in Oracle, SQL Server, or Sybase: 1. Make backups of the GSM and UMTS documents. 2. Open the GSM document in Atoll. 3. Delete all the transmitters from the Transmitters table and all the sites from the Sites table.
4. Export the GSM document to the database by entering the user name and password for GSMUser. 5. Log in as GSMUser to the database. 6. Delete the Sites table. 7. Open the UMTS document in Atoll. 8. Export the UMTS document to the database by entering the user name and password for UMTSUser. 9. Log in as UMTSUser to the database. 10. Right-click the Sites table and select Create a View from the context menu. The Create View dialogue appears. a. Enter Sites as the view name. b. Enter GSMUser as the name of the schema which will contain the view. c. Select Table as object type. d. Enter UMTSUser as the name of the schema you want to use. e. Select Sites as the object used to model the view. 11. Click Create. The view of the Sites table from UMTSUser is created in GSMUser. The GSMUser Sites table is now the same as UMTSUser Sites table. 12. Set up user privileges for the Sites view in GSMUser to allow each user to Import, Update, Delete, and Select. To set up a shared Sites table for a GSM-UMTS co-planning project in Microsoft Access: 1. Make backups of the GSM and UMTS documents. 2. Open the GSM document in Atoll. 3. Delete all the transmitters from the Transmitters table and all the sites from the Sites table. 4. Export the GSM document to a Microsoft Access database (GSM.mdb). 5. Open GSM.mdb in Microsoft Access. 6. Delete the Sites table. 7. Open the UMTS document in Atoll 8. Export the UMTS document to a Microsoft Access database (UMTS.mdb). 9. Open GSM.mdb in Microsoft Access. 10. In Microsoft Access 2003 and earlier, select File > Get External Data > Link Tables. In Microsoft Access 2007 and later, select External Data > Access Database. 11. In Microsoft Access 2003 and earlier, the Link dialogue appears. Select UMTS.mdb. In Microsoft Access 2007 and later, the Get External Data - Access Database dialogue appears, specify UMTS.mdb as data source and select Link to data source by creating a linked table. 12. Click OK. The Link Tables dialogue appears. 13. Select the Sites table. 14. Click OK. Microsoft Access creates a Sites table in GSM.mdb which is linked to the Sites table in UMTS.mdb. The tables contain the same data. Once the linked Sites table has been created in the GSM database, you have to define the relations of this table with the other tables in the database. Figure 13.1 on page 231 shows the relations of the Sites table with other tables in a GSM database. The UMTS Sites table has more fields compared to the GSM Sites table. Therefore, we propose to replace the GSM Sites table with the UMTS one.
Ensuring Database Consistency Between Linked Documents When users work with two Atoll documents and databases at the same time, it is important to have a protection mechanism against database inconsistencies. If a user archives the changes made in one document but forgets to archive the changes made in the other, this may create inconsistencies between the two networks. To ensure database consistency, you may save or archive the linked documents at the same time, i.e., when a user saves or archives one document, Atoll automatically saves or archives the other. This can be done using a macro triggered by the save or archive operation.
6 Multi-user Environments A multi-user environment is where more than one user work simultaneously on an Atoll project, sharing data over a network. In large, structured multi-user environments, groups of users may work on specific parts of a common, large-scale project. For example, different user groups may work on different regions of a country-wide network. In this chapter, the following are explained: • • •
"Setting Up Multi-user Environments" on page 65 "Components of Multi-user Environments" on page 65 "Managing User Accounts and Access Rights" on page 67
6.1 Setting Up Multi-user Environments The general process of setting up a multi-user environment is described below. Each component is described in detail in "Components of Multi-user Environments" on page 65. 1. Create the master Atoll document with the required network data and geographic data. For more information, see "Master Atoll Document" on page 66 and "Shared Geographic Data" on page 66. 2. Export the master Atoll document to a new database and keep the document connected to the new database. For more information, see "Master Database" on page 66. 3. Create the private path loss matrices folder for the master Atoll document and calculate the private path loss matrices. For more information, see "Shared Path Loss Matrices" on page 67. 4. Create user Atoll documents from the master database. For more information, see "User Atoll Documents" on page 67. 5. In the user Atoll documents, add the required geographic data and set the master Atoll document’s private path loss matrices folder as the shared path loss matrices folder of the user documents. • •
The Atoll administrator should regularly update the shared path loss matrices. As the users work on the network and archive changes in the database, the Atoll administrator should regularly run data integrity checks on the master Atoll document after loading modified data from the master database. For more information, see "Appendix 1: Checking Data Integrity" on page 71.
6.2 Components of Multi-user Environments Figure 6.1 on page 65 shows the components of a multi-user environment.
In this section, the following are explained: • • • • •
"Master Atoll Document" on page 66 "Master Database" on page 66 "Shared Geographic Data" on page 66 "Shared Path Loss Matrices" on page 67 "User Atoll Documents" on page 67
6.2.1 Master Atoll Document It is the source Atoll document that contains the entire project’s network data. It is created and maintained by the Atoll administrator. This document is initially used to create the radio network database with which all the end-users work. The master Atoll document allows the administrator to globally manage all the data shared by the end-users. The master Atoll document is also used for calculating path loss matrices for the transmitters of the entire network and keeping the path loss matrices up to date with the user modifications to the radio network data. The document also contains the required geographic data for path loss calculations. Geographic data are usually located on file servers and linked to the document, not embedded in the ATL file. The private path loss matrices of this document are used as shared path loss matrices by the end-users. The shared path loss matrices folder is usually located on a file server accessible to all the users on the network. For exceptionally large networks, you can also work with more than one master Atoll document (for example, one master document per region). However, the multi-user environment set up remains the same. Master Atoll documents should not have redundant radio network data (same sites, for example), and should ideally cover different geographical regions. For more information on regionalisation, see "Appendix 2: Database Regionalisation" on page 71. If you wish to add custom fields in the Atoll document, you should first add the field in the database, and then update your Atoll document from the database. Custom fields added in an Atoll document connected to a Microsoft Access database are automatically added to the database. However, this is not the case with other RDBMS, such as Oracle.
6.2.2 Master Database The master database stores the radio network data shared by all the end-users. It can be created by exporting the radio network data in the master Atoll document to a database from Atoll (for more information, see "Creating a New Database Using Atoll" on page 49). An empty database can also be created using the Atoll Management Console, and populated with data later on (for more information, see "Creating a New Database Using the Atoll Management Console" on page 48). Only radio network data are stored in the database, i.e., sites, transmitters, antennas, etc. Parameters related to geographic data files, their paths, folder configurations, prediction definitions, zones, traffic maps, measurements can be stored in user configuration files (see "Configuration Files" on page 141 for details). For large networks, you can subdivide the network’s master database into regions. For more information on regionalisation, see "Appendix 2: Database Regionalisation" on page 71. For more information on database management, see "Managing Databases" on page 45. The recommended database server configuration is provided in "Recommended Hardware and Software" on page 22. The same database server can be used to store one or more master databases corresponding to different technologies. For example, a GSM database and a UMTS database can be stored on the same database server using the same RDBMS (Oracle, for example).
6.2.3 Shared Geographic Data Geographic data files are usually stored on a file server accessible to and shared by all the users working on the same network. User configuration files (CFG or GEO) are used to store the parameters related to geographic data. For more information, see "Configuration Files" on page 141. The administrator can set up different user configuration files (CFG) for separate user groups. User configuration files can be created so that only the geographic data required by a user are loaded. It is possible to load a user configuration file automatically when running Atoll. User configuration files can be shared and exchanged between users working on the same project. For more information, see "Atoll Command Line Parameters" on page 31. Geographic data files are usually large files, and it is recommended that these be stored externally and not embedded in Atoll documents. The recommended file server configuration is provided in "Recommended Hardware and Software" on page 22.
If users modify geographic data locally, for example edit clutter or traffic in their respective projects, they should store these modified geographic data locally so that the modifications do not impact other users.
6.2.4 Shared Path Loss Matrices Shared path loss matrices are usually stored on a file server accessible to and shared by all the users working on the same project. These path losses are calculated using the master Atoll document by the Atoll administrator. The private path loss matrices of the master Atoll document are used as shared path loss matrices by the end-users. The Atoll administrator is the owner of the shared path loss matrices, and must have read/write access to the shared path loss matrices folder. End-users should have read-only access to this folder. It is the administrator’s duty to regularly update the master Atoll document with the modifications made to the master database by the end-users, and to calculate the shared path loss matrices using the master Atoll document on a routine basis. This task can be carried out using a macro. For more information, see "Appendix 3: Calculating Path Loss Matrices" on page 72. Shared path loss matrices are available for use in calculations to all the end-users. However, end-users are not allowed to modify the shared path loss matrices. The shared path loss matrices must be unlocked in order for users to be able to work with them. You can check whether path loss matrices are unlocked in the Propagation tab of the Transmitters folder’s properties dialogue.
6.2.5 User Atoll Documents User Atoll documents are created from the master database. These may contain the entire project network data or only a part of it. User documents are the working documents of the Atoll end-users connected to the master database, the geographic data, and the shared path loss matrices folder. You should load data from the master database in each user Atoll document and save it before setting the shared path loss matrices folder for the document. For any modifications made by end-users in their Atoll documents that render some shared path losses invalid, Atoll calculates the invalid path loss matrices locally for the end-users and stores them in their private path loss matrices location. Shared path loss matrices are only used in calculations if valid private path loss matrices are not available. Therefore, in order to use shared path loss matrices, you must delete the corresponding private path loss matrices. If users are going to work on regions of a network, the regionalisation should be set up before creating the user documents. For more information on regionalisation, see "Appendix 2: Database Regionalisation" on page 71. If you wish to add custom fields in the Atoll document, you should first add the field in the database, and then update your Atoll document from the database. Custom fields added in an Atoll document connected to a Microsoft Access database are automatically added to the database. However, this is not the case with other RDBMS, such as Oracle.
6.3 Managing User Accounts and Access Rights The Atoll Management Console enables you to create and delete database user accounts, edit user account information, and define user access rights to different components of a project such as database tables, and radio data and parameters in Atoll. In order to be able to manage user accounts and access rights using the Atoll Management Console, you first have to make the database compatible with the user management tool. This is done automatically when the user management tool is run on a database for the first time. The database has to be of the same version as the Atoll Management Console being used to manage user accounts and access rights. To make your database compatible with the user management tool: 1. In the Atoll Management Console window, right-click the database whose user accounts you wish to manage. 2. Select Manage Users. The User Management dialogue appears (see Figure 6.2 on page 68). 3. Click Yes when asked whether you want to make your database compatible with the user management tool. The Atoll Management Console adds a GUIUserRights table in the database with the following structure: Field
Semi-colon separated set of interface access rights
Each user’s interface access rights are stored in a unique record in the GUIUserRights table. The contents of the RIGHTS field have the following syntax: RADIOPARAMS;CALCPARAMS;PROPAGMODELS;PASSWORD The syntax is explained in detail in "Defining Database and Interface Access Rights" on page 68. If interface access rights are not defined for a database, i.e., the GUIUserRights table does not exist, all the users have unrestricted access to the Atoll interface. If interface access rights are defined for a database, and a user creates a document from the database or opens a document connected to the database, Atoll retrieves the interface access rights for the user when he enters his user name and password to access the database. If the database is not reachable, the user is not listed in the GUIUserRights table, or if the password is not correct, the user’s interface access rights are set to read-only by default (for more information, see "Defining Database and Interface Access Rights" on page 68). If the user is listed in the GUIUserRights table, his interface access rights are read and applied to the Atoll interface (table grids and properties dialogues). A message is displayed in the Event Viewer window to inform the user of his interface access rights. It is possible to remove interface access restrictions by disconnecting the document from the database. However, a disconnected document cannot be reconnected to the database. The GUIUserRights table is also stored in the Atoll document, and is updated when the document is saved. Hence, users can work on their documents without actually being connected to the database, and still have their usual interface access rights applied in the document. Atoll does not ask for the user name and password when a document is opened using the API. The interface access rights stored in the document are used.
When database connection properties are modified for a document, for example, when a different user enters his user name and password in the connection properties, Atoll reads and applies the interface access rights defined for the new user.
6.3.1 Defining Database and Interface Access Rights For any existing user account, you can set the database and Atoll interface access rights using the Atoll Management Console. To manage database and Atoll interface access rights for an existing user account: 1. In the Atoll Management Console window, right-click the database whose user accounts you wish to manage. 2. Select Manage Users. The User Management dialogue appears (see Figure 6.2 on page 68).
Figure 6.2: User Account and Access Rights Management Dialogue 3. Under Atoll projects, select the project for which you want to manage user accounts. 4. Under List of users, select the user account whose database and interface access rights you want to set.
Users who have database access rights in the selected database are marked with the green icon ( ). Users who do not have any database access rights in the selected database (Category = No Access) are marked with the red icon ( ). Locked (deactivated) user accounts are marked with a yellow lock icon ( ). For more information on locked user accounts, see "Creating and Editing User Accounts" on page 69. You can use the Filter list to display: •
All users: Users with access (
• • • •
Users with access ( ) Administrators: Users with administrator rights among the users with access Standard users: Users with standard rights among the user with access Read-only users: Users with read-only access rights among the users with access
), without access (
), or locked (
)
5. Under Database rights, you can select a database access Rights category: • • •
•
No access: User without read and write access to the database. The database is not visible to these users and they are not allowed to create Atoll documents based on this database. Read-only: Users allowed to create Atoll documents from the database but without write permissions to any table of the database, i.e., users cannot archive changes made in the Atoll document to the database. Standard: Users with read and write access to some tables of the database. These tables include radio network data tables including sites, transmitters, cells, subcells, repeaters, remote antennas, secondary antennas, intraand inter-technology neighbours and exceptional pairs, site and transmitter lists, microwave point-to-point, pointto-multipoint, and multi-hop links, microwave repeaters, microwave hubs. Administrator: Users with read and write access to all the tables of the database.
Database access rights are stored in the user account properties in Oracle. If you are working with an RDBMS other than Oracle, you will not be able to set database access rights. You can, however, still set interface access rights as explained below. 6. Under Interface rights, you can select interface access rights for: •
Access to radio data: • Full: (RADIOPARAMS = ALL) Users with read and write access to all the tables and properties dialogues. • Standard: (RADIOPARAMS = STD) Users with read and write access to radio network data tables and properties dialogues including sites, transmitters, cells, subcells, repeaters, remote antennas, secondary antennas, intra- and inter-technology neighbours and exceptional pairs, site and transmitter lists, microwave point-to-point, point-to-multipoint, and multi-hop links, microwave repeaters, microwave hubs. • Read-only: (RADIOPARAMS = NONE) Users with read-only access to tables and properties dialogues, i.e., users are not allowed to modify radio network data and parameters. •
•
Database access rights and access rights to radio data in Atoll can be set independently. For example, a user may have full access rights in the interface but not allowed to archive changes to the database. However, access rights in the interface should only be granted if the user has at least read-only access to the database.
•
Access to predictions: • All: (CALCPARAMS = ALL) Users with read and write access to all coverage predictions and their properties. • Standard: (CALCPARAMS = STD) Users with access to customised coverage predictions only, and allowed to modify coverage conditions and display settings. • Customised only: (CALCPARAMS = NONE) Users with access to customised coverage predictions only, but not allowed to modify coverage conditions and display settings.
•
Access to propagation models: • Full: (PROPAGMODELS = ALL) Users with read and write access to all propagation models and their properties. • Read only: (PROPAGMODELS = NONE) Users with read-only access to the properties of all the propagation models. Adding and deleting propagation models is also not allowed.
•
Password confirmation: • Yes: (PASSWORD = STD) Atoll will ask users for password when opening a document connected to this database or creating a new document from this database. • No: (PASSWORD = NONE) Atoll will not ask users for password when opening a document connected to this database or creating a new document from this database.
7. Click OK. The database and interface access rights of the selected user are saved in the database.
6.3.2 Creating and Editing User Accounts You can create and edit user accounts using the Atoll Management Console.
To manage user accounts: 1. In the Atoll Management Console window, right-click the database whose user accounts you want to manage. 2. Select Manage Users. The User Management dialogue appears (see Figure 6.2 on page 68). 3. To create a new user account: a. Under Users, click Create. The Create/Edit User dialogue appears (Figure 6.3 on page 70). b. Under Identification, enter a User name (in block letters) and Password, and select a Tablespace for the new user account. c. Under Advanced, select Use operating system authentication if you want to use OS authentication prefix with the user name, and Unlimited tablespace privilege if you want to assign this system privilege to the user. d. Click OK. The new user account is created. 4. To edit a user account: a. Under List of users, select the user account whose information you want to edit. b. Under Users, click Edit. The Create/Edit User dialogue appears (Figure 6.3 on page 70). c. Under Identification, modify the user’s Password or assigned Tablespace. d. Under Advanced, select Use operating system authentication if you want to use OS authentication prefix with the user name, and Unlimited tablespace privilege if you want to assign this system privilege to the user. e. Click OK. The modified user account information is saved. 5. To deactivate (lock) a user account: a. Under List of users, select the user account you want to deactivate. b. Under Users, click Edit. The Create/Edit User dialogue appears (Figure 6.3 on page 70). c. Under Advanced, select Account locked check box. d. Click OK. The user account is deactivated and can no longer be used. 6. To delete a user account: a. Under List of users, select the user account you want to delete. b. Under Users, click Delete. The user account is deleted.
Figure 6.3: Creating or Editing a User Account
6.4 Appendices The following appendices provide additional information on: • • •
70
"Appendix 1: Checking Data Integrity" on page 71 "Appendix 2: Database Regionalisation" on page 71 "Appendix 1: Checking Data Integrity" on page 71
6.4.1 Appendix 1: Checking Data Integrity Atoll includes data consistency and integrity checking tools that allow you to check data consistency between the different Atoll tables (Sites, Transmitters, etc.). It is recommended that the Atoll administrator runs data integrity checks regularly on the master Atoll document after it is updated with data modifications in the master database. To perform data integrity check: •
In Atoll, select Document > Data Audit > Integrity Check. Atoll searches for records with integrity problems which may occur with objects that have foreign keys. Integrity problems occur when records refer records that do not exist. For example, transmitters located on sites that do not exist in the Sites table, transmitters referring to an antenna that does not exist in the Antennas table, etc.). Records with integrity problems may be deleted when found.
To perform undefined record check: •
In Atoll, select Document > Data Audit > Undefined Record Check. Atoll searches for undefined records such as sites without transmitters, transmitters without subcells, TRXs, and neighbours in GSM, transmitters without cells, and cells without neighbours in UMTS, CDMA2000, TD-SCDMA, LTE, and WiMAX. Atoll lists all the undefined records found in the Event Viewer.
To perform duplicate record check: •
In Atoll, select Document > Data Audit > Duplicate Record Check. Atoll searches for records that have the same identifier. For example, sites with the same name, transmitters with the same name, etc. Atoll lists all the duplicate records in the Event Viewer.
To perform microwave data check: 1. In Atoll, select Document > Data Audit > Microwave Link Data Check. The Microwave Data Check dialogue appears. 2. In the Microwave Data Check dialogue, select the data to check. 3. Select List all the checks to list all the checks in the Event Viewer. 4. Click OK. Atoll searches the microwave links tables for problems related to the selected checks. Atoll lists the problems found in the Event Viewer. If you fix any problems in the Atoll document, you must archive the changes in the database in order to fix the problems for all the users working with that database.
6.4.2 Appendix 2: Database Regionalisation You can subdivide the network into regions in the following ways: •
Static regionalisation using multi-level databases Static regionalisation can be based on site lists, SQL filters, or geographic zones in the form of filtering polygons. Static regionalisation is carried out by creating project databases from the master database, i.e., multi-level databases as explained in "Working With Multi-level Databases" on page 52. Static regionalisation requires manual synchronisation between the master database and the regional project databases using the Atoll Management Console. In a multi-level database environment, end-users work with project databases, refreshing and archiving data as they continue to work on their respective regions of the network. Data archive and refresh between the project databases and the master database are performed by the administrator alone. • •
•
Advantage: High performance. Disadvantage: Manual Synchronisation between the master and the project databases.
Dynamic regionalisation using Oracle Spatial or Oracle Locator Dynamic regionalisation can be based on Oracle Spatial, which does not create separate regional databases from the master database, but rather lets the different users work with the master database directly while managing their access privileges according to their user connection properties. In an Atoll multi-user environment, you can create such regionalisation without installing Oracle Spatial. You can implement this solution using Oracle Locator, which is provided in the standard Oracle installation. Specific documents explaining how to set up this regionalisation, using Oracle, in any Atoll master database are available on demand from Forsk. These documents provide scripts for creating different types of users, e.g., the
administrator, advanced user, read-only user, etc., and give examples of how to set up regions in the network and how to assign user rights to each region. • •
Advantage: Once set up, does not require administrator intervention. Disadvantage: Slow performance (archiving data in the database takes a long time).
6.4.3 Appendix 3: Calculating Path Loss Matrices You can calculate only the invalid path loss matrices or all the path loss matrices in Atoll or using a macro. You should only calculate the shared path loss matrices when they are not being accessed by users.
To calculate invalid path loss matrices only: 1. Right-click the Transmitters folder. The context menu appears. 2. Select Calculations > Calculate Path Loss Matrices. Atoll calculates path loss matrices for all active transmitters in the folder or subfolder. Only invalid and nonexistent matrices are calculated. To calculate all the path loss matrices (valid and invalid): 1. Right-click the Transmitters folder. The context menu appears. 2. Select Calculations > Force Path Loss Matrix Calculation. Atoll calculates all the path loss matrices for all active transmitters in the folder or subfolder. You can write a script or macro to update path loss matrices automatically at regular intervals. The script or macro should: 1. Start Atoll (Start). 2. Open the master Atoll document (Open). 3. Refresh the contents of the document with data from the database (Refresh). 4. Calculate path loss matrices (Calculate). 5. Save the master Atoll document (Save). 6. Close Atoll (Exit). A path loss update macro is available from Forsk on demand. You should also make regular backups of the master Atoll document. The above macro could also create a backup ATL file of the master Atoll document on a regular basis. This file can be overwritten daily, whenever path losses are calculated.
6.4.4 Appendix 4: Path Loss Matrices From Different Sources Atoll calculates path loss matrices and creates path loss matrix storage files using the propagation models assigned to transmitters. Atoll can also work with path loss matrices calculated by other tools. To use path loss matrices from different sources, make sure that the path loss matrices are: • • •
Available in a format compatible with Atoll. File formats are described in "Path Loss Matrix File Format" on page 117. Stored at the location set in the Atoll document. Valid. If the path loss matrices are not valid, Atoll will automatically calculate them the next time they are used. Path loss matrices calculated by other tools should include antenna pattern attenuation (i.e., should be masked) in order to be consistent with the path loss matrices calculated by Atoll.
The shared path loss matrices architecture can contain path loss matrices from different sources. The Pathloss.dbf file provides the means to manage several sources of path loss matrices. This file stores, among other information, the validity status and the location (path) of the path loss matrix files for each transmitter. Let us assume that users of group A wish to work with the path loss matrices generated by Atoll only, and users of group B wish to work with path loss matrices generated by a different tool for a part of the network and with path loss matrices generated by Atoll where the matrices from the other tool are not available.
Let us assume that the shared path loss matrices folder where Atoll stores the generated path loss matrices files is C:\Path_Loss_Internal, and the folder where the other tool stores its path loss matrices is C:\Path_Loss_External. The Pathloss.dbf file in the Path_Loss_Internal folder will store the path to the LOS files for each transmitter in the network. This folder can be set as the shared path loss matrices folder in the ATL files of group A users. To set up the shared path loss matrices folder for group B users, you must create a new folder with a Pathloss.dbf file in it. This folder can be called C:\Path_Loss_Mixed. The Pathloss.dbf file in this folder can be a copy of the Pathloss.dbf file in the Path_Loss_Internal folder with the paths to the LOS files modified. For example, if the path loss matrices generated by the other tool include Transmitter_1, the Pathloss.dbf file in the Path_Loss_Mixed folder will have all the same entries as Pathloss.dbf file in the Path_Loss_Internal folder except for the path for the Transmitter_1 path loss matrices file. Figure 6.4 on page 73 explains this concept.
Figure 6.4: Path Loss Architecture for Multiple Source Path Loss Matrices Once the Pathloss.dbf file in the Path_Loss_Mixed folder is updated with the correct paths corresponding to the different transmitters, the Path_Loss_Mixed folder can be set as the shared path loss matrices folder in the ATL files of group B users. If a group B user changes some parameters which make some path loss matrices invalid, Atoll will recalculate the private path loss matrices with the propagation models assigned to the transmitters. The external path loss matrix will no longer be used.
Part 2 Reference This part of the administrator manual provides recommendations and information on Atoll configuration and initialisation files.
In this part, the following are explained: •
"Administration and Usage Recommendations" on page 129
•
"Configuration Files" on page 141
•
"Initialisation Files" on page 169
Atoll 3.1.0 Administrator Manual Chapter 7: Coordinate Systems and Units
AT310_AM_E2
7 Coordinate Systems and Units 7.1 Coordinate Systems A map or a geo-spatial database is a flat representation of data collected over a curved surface. Projection is a means of producing all or part of a spheroid on a flat surface, which cannot be done without distortion. It is up to the cartographer to choose the characteristic (distance, direction, scale, area, or shape) that he wants to produce accurately on a flat surface at the expense of the other characteristics, or to make a compromise on several characteristics. The projected zones are referenced using cartographic coordinates (metre, yard, etc.). Two projection methods are widely used: •
•
The Lambert Conformal-Conic Method: A portion of the earth is projected on a cone conceptually secant at one or two standard parallels. This projection method is useful for representing countries or regions that have a predominant east-west expanse. The Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Method: A portion of the earth is projected on a cylinder tangent to a meridian (which is transverse or crosswise to the equator). This projection method is useful for mapping large areas that are oriented north-south.
A geographic system is not a projection, but a representation of a location on the surface of the earth in geographic coordinates (degree-minute-second, gradient) with the latitude and longitude with respect to a meridian (e.g., Paris for NTF system and Greenwich for ED50 system). Locations in a geographic system can be converted into other projections. References: 1. Snyder, John. P., Map Projections Used by the US Geological Survey, 2nd Edition, United States Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 313 pages, 1982. 2. http://www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/gps/gps_f.html 3. http://www.epsg.org/Geodetic.html 4. http://geodesie.ign.fr/contenu/fichiers/documentation/pedagogiques/ transfo.pdf (French)
7.1.1 Definition of a Coordinate System A geographic coordinate system is a latitude and longitude coordinate system. The latitude and longitude are related to an ellipsoid, a geodetic datum, and a prime meridian. The geodetic datum provides the position and orientation of the ellipsoid relative to the earth. Cartographic coordinate systems are obtained by transforming each (latitude, longitude) value into an (easting, northing) value. A projection coordinate system is obtained by transforming each (latitude, longitude) value into an (easting, northing) value. Projection coordinate systems are geographic coordinate systems that provide longitude and latitude, and the transformation method characterised by a set of parameters. Different methods may require different sets of parameters. For example, the parameters required for Transverse Mercator coordinate systems are: • • • • •
The longitude of the natural origin (central meridian) The latitude of the natural origin The False Easting value The False Northing value A scaling factor at the natural origin (central meridian)
Basic definitions are presented below. Geographic Coordinate System The geographic coordinate system is a datum and a meridian. Atoll enables you to choose the most suitable geographic coordinate system for your geographic data. Datum The datum consists of the ellipsoid and its position relative to the WGS84 ellipsoid. In addition to the ellipsoid, translation, rotation, and distortion parameters define the datum. Meridian The standard meridian is Greenwich, but some geographic coordinate systems are based on other meridians. These meridians are defined by the longitude with respect to Greenwich.
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Atoll 3.1.0 Administrator Manual Chapter 7: Coordinate Systems and Units
Ellipsoid The ellipsoid is the pattern used to model the earth. It is defined by its geometric parameters. Projection The projection is the transformation applied to project the ellipsoid of the earth on to a plane. There are different projection methods that use specific sets of parameters. Projection Coordinate System The projection coordinate system is the result of the application of a projection to a geographic coordinate system. It associates a geographic coordinate system and a projection. Atoll enables you to choose the projection coordinate system matching your geographic data.
7.1.2 Types of Coordinate Systems in Atoll Depending on the working environment, there can be either two or four coordinate systems used in Atoll. If you are working with stand-alone documents, i.e., documents not connected to databases, there are two coordinate systems used in Atoll: • •
Projection coordinate system Display coordinate system
If you are working in a multi-user environment, Atoll uses four coordinate systems: • • • •
Projection coordinate system for the Atoll document Display coordinate system for the Atoll document Internal projection coordinate system for the database Internal display coordinate system for the database
Projection Coordinate System The projection coordinate system is the coordinate system of the available raster geographic data files. You should set the projection coordinate system of your Atoll document so that it corresponds to the coordinate system of the available raster geographic data. You can set the projection coordinate system of your document in the Options dialog. All the raster geographic data files that you want to import and use in an Atoll document must have the same coordinate system. You cannot work with raster geographic data files with different coordinate systems in the same document. If you import vector geographic data (e.g., traffic, measurements, etc.) with different coordinate systems, it is possible to convert the coordinate systems of these data into the projection coordinate system of your Atoll document. The projection coordinate system is used to keep the coordinates of sites (radio network data) consistent with the geographic data. When you import a raster geographic data file, Atoll reads the geo-referencing information from the file (or from its header file, depending on the geographic data file format), i.e., its Northwest pixel, to determine the coordinates of each pixel. Atoll does not use any coordinate system during the import process. However, the geo-referencing information of geographic data files are considered to be provided in the projection coordinate system of the document. Display Coordinate System The display coordinate system is the coordinate system used for the display, e.g., in dialogs, in the Map window rulers, in the status bar, etc. The coordinates of each pixel of geographic data are converted to the display coordinate system from the projection coordinate system for display. The display coordinate system is also used for sites (radio network data). You can set the display coordinate system of your document in the Options dialog. If you import sites data, the coordinate system of the sites must correspond to the display coordinate system of your Atoll document. If you change the display coordinate system in a document which is not connected to a database, the coordinates of all the sites are converted to the new display system. If the coordinate systems of all your geographic data files and sites (radio network data) are the same, you do not have to define the projection and display coordinate systems separately. By default, the two coordinate systems are the same.
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Internal Coordinate Systems The internal coordinate systems are the projection and the display coordinate systems stored in a database. The projection and display coordinate systems set by the administrator in the central Atoll project are stored in the database when the database is created, and cannot be modified by users. Only the administrator can modify the internal coordinate systems manually by editing the entries in the CoordSys and the Units tables. All Atoll documents opened from a database will have the internal coordinate systems of the database as their default projection and display coordinate systems. When exporting an Atoll project to a database, the currently chosen display coordinate system becomes the internal display coordinate system for the database, and the currently chosen projection coordinate system becomes the internal projection coordinate system for the database. Although Atoll stores both the coordinate systems in the database, i.e., the projection and the display coordinate systems, the only relevant coordinate system for the database is the internal display coordinate system because this coordinate system is the one used for the coordinates of sites (radio network data). Users working on documents connected to a database can modify the coordinate systems in their documents locally, and save these changes in their documents, but they cannot modify the coordinate systems stored in the database. If you change the display coordinate system in a document which is not connected to a database, the coordinates of all the sites are converted to the new display system. If you change the display coordinate system in a document which is connected to a database, the coordinates of all the sites are converted to the new coordinate system in the Atoll document locally but not in the database because the internal coordinate systems cannot be changed. Atoll uses the internal coordinates systems in order to keep the site coordinates consistent in the database which is usually accessed by a large number of users in a multi-user environment.
7.1.3 Coordinate Systems File Format The Coordsystems folder located in the Atoll installation directory contains all the coordinate systems, both geographic and cartographic, offered in the tool. Coordinate systems are grouped by regions. A catalogue per region and a "Favourites" catalogue are available in Atoll. The Favourites catalogue is initially empty and can be filled by the user by adding coordinate systems to it. Each catalogue is described by an ASCII text file with .cs extension. In a .cs file, each coordinate system is described in one line. The line syntax for describing a coordinate system is: Code = "Name of the system"; Unit Code; Datum Code; Projection Method Code, Projection Parameters; "Comments" Examples: 4230 = "ED50"; 101; 230; 1; "Europe - west" 32045 = "NAD27 / Vermont"; 2; 267; 6, -72.5, 42.5, 500000, 0, 0.9999643; "United States - Vermont" You should keep the following points in mind when editing or creating .cs files: • •
The identification code enables Atoll to differentiate coordinates systems. In case you create a new coordinate system, its code must be an integer value higher than 32767. When describing a new datum, you must enter the ellipsoid code and parameters instead of the datum code in brackets. There can be 3 to 7 parameters defined in the following order: Dx, Dy, Dz, Rx, Ry, Rz, S. The syntax of the line in the .cs file will be:
Code = "Name of the system"; Unit Code; {Ellipsoid Code, Dx, Dy, Dz, Rx, Ry, Rz, S}; Projection Method Code, Projection Parameters; "Comments" •
• •
There can be up to seven projection parameters. These parameters must be ordered according to the parameter index (see "Projection Parameter Indices" on page 82). Parameter with index 0 is the first one. Projection parameters are delimited by commas. For UTM projections, you must provide positive UTM zone numbers for north UTM zones and negative numbers for south UTM zones. You can add all other information as comments (such as usage or region).
Codes of units, data, projection methods, and ellipsoids, and projection parameter indices are listed in the tables below.
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7.1.4 Creating a Coordinate System in Atoll Atoll provides a large default catalogue of coordinate systems. However, it is possible to add new geographic and cartographic coordinate systems. New coordinate systems can be created from scratch or initialised based on existing ones. To create a new coordinate system from scratch: 1. Select Document > Properties. The Properties dialogue opens. 2. Select the Coordinates tab. 3. Click the Browse button (
) to the right of Projection. The Coordinate Systems dialogue appears.
4. Click New. The Coordinate System dialogue appears.
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5. In the Coordinate System dialogue: a. Select the coordinate systems catalogue to which you want to add the new coordinate system. b. Under General, enter a Name for the new coordinate system and select a Unit. In Use, you can enter comments about its usage. Atoll assigns the code automatically. c. Under Category, select the Type of coordinate system. Enter the longitude and latitude for a geographic coordinate system, or the type of projection and its set of associated parameters for a cartographic coordinate system (false easting and northing, and the first and second parallels). d. Under Geo, specify the meridian and choose a Datum for the coordinate system. The associated ellipsoid is automatically selected. You can also describe a geodetic datum by selecting "" in the Datum list. In this case, you must select an Ellipsoid and enter parameters (Dx, Dy, Dz, Rx, Ry, Rz, and S) needed for the transformation of the datum into WGS84. 6. Click OK. The new coordinate system is added to the selected coordinate system catalogue. To create a new coordinate system based on an existing system, select a coordinate system in the Coordinate Systems dialogue before clicking New in step 4. The new coordinate system is initialised with the values of the selected coordinate system.
7.2 Units In the Atoll documents, you can define measurement units for reception, transmission, antenna gain, distance, height and offset, and temperature. You can accept the default measurement units, or you can change them using the document properties dialogue. Transmission and Reception Power Units Depending on the working environment, Atoll can use either one or two measurement units for the transmission/reception power. If you are working with stand-alone documents, i.e., documents not connected to databases, there is only one measurement unit used in Atoll for display. It corresponds to the transmission/reception power unit defined in the Atoll document. If you are working in a multi-user environment, Atoll uses two measurement units: •
•
A measurement unit for display in the Atoll document. It corresponds to the transmission/reception power unit defined in the current Atoll document. It is used for the display in the dialogues and in the tables, e.g., reception thresholds (coverage prediction properties, microwave link properties, etc.), and received signal levels (measurements, point analysis, coverage predictions, microwave link properties, etc.). An internal measurement unit for the database. The internal unit is the transmission/reception power unit stored in the database. It corresponds to the transmission/reception power unit used in the master Atoll document when the database is created. Users working in documents connected to a database can modify the transmission/reception power unit and save this change in their documents locally, but they cannot modify the internal power unit stored in the database. Only the administrator can modify it manually by editing the entry in the Units tables.
Antenna Gain Units Depending on the working environment, Atoll can use either one or two measurement units for the antenna gain. If you are working with stand-alone documents, i.e., documents not connected to databases, there is only one measurement unit used in Atoll for display. It corresponds to the antenna gain unit defined in the Atoll document. If you are working in a multi-user environment, Atoll uses two measurement units: • •
A measurement unit for display in the Atoll document. It corresponds to the antenna gain unit defined in the current Atoll document and it is used for the display in the dialogues and in the tables. An internal measurement unit for the database. The internal unit is the antenna gain unit stored in the database. It corresponds to the antenna gain unit used in the master Atoll document when the database is created. Users working in documents connected to a database can modify the antenna gain unit and save this change in their documents locally, but they cannot modify the antenna gain unit stored in the database. Only the administrator can modify it manually by editing the entry in the Units tables.
Distance Units Atoll uses the distance unit defined in the current Atoll document as display unit of the distances in the dialogues, in the tables, and in the status bar. Metre is used as the internal measurement unit for the distance in all Atoll documents whether they are connected to databases or not. The internal measurement unit is not stored in the database and cannot be changed.
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Height and Offset Units Atoll uses the height and offset unit defined in the current Atoll document as display unit of the heights and the offsets in the dialogues, in the tables, and in the status bar. Metre is used as the internal measurement unit for the heights and offsets in all Atoll documents whether they are connected to databases or not. The internal measurement unit is not stored in the database and cannot be changed. Temperature Units Atoll uses the temperature unit defined in the current Atoll document as display unit of the temperatures in the dialogues and in the tables. Degree Celsius is used as the internal measurement unit for the temperature in all Atoll documents whether they are connected to databases or not. The internal measurement unit is not stored in the database and cannot be changed.
7.3 BSIC Format Depending on the working environment, there can be either one or two types of BSIC formats. If you are working with standalone documents, i.e., documents not connected to databases, there is only one BSIC format: •
Display BSIC format
If you are working in a multi-user environment, Atoll uses two type of formats: • •
Display BSIC format for the Atoll document Internal BSIC format for the database
The display format is used for the display in dialogs and tables. You can set the display format for your document from the Transmitters folder’s context menu. The internal format is the BSIC format stored in a database. The BSIC format set by the administrator in the central Atoll project is stored in the database when the database is created, and cannot be modified by users. Only the administrator can modify the internal format manually by editing the corresponding entry in the Units tables. All Atoll documents opened from a database will have the internal format of the database as their default BSIC format. Users working on documents connected to a database can modify the format in their documents locally, and save this change in their documents, but they cannot modify the format stored in the database.
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8 Geographic Data Atoll supports several geographic data types; DTM (Digital Terrain Model), clutter, scanned images, vector data, traffic maps, population, and custom geographic data. Atoll offers import/export filters for the most commonly used geographic data formats. The different filters are: File Format
Import and Export in Atoll
Geographic Data
Georeferencing
BIL
Both
DTM, clutter classes, clutter heights, traffic maps, images, population, other
Yes (via HDRfiles)
TIFF
Both
DTM, clutter classes, clutter heights, traffic maps, images, population, other
Yes (via TFW files)
Planet
Both
DTM, clutter classes, images, vector data
Yes (via index files)
BMP
Both
DTM, clutter classes, clutter heights, traffic maps, images, population, other
Yes (via BPW or BMW files)
DXF
Import
Vector data, vector traffic maps
Yes
SHP
Both
Vector data, vector traffic maps, population, other
Yes
MapInfo (MIF, TAB)
Both
Vector data, vector traffic maps, population, other
Yes
Erdas Imagine (IMG)
Import
DTM, clutter classes, clutter heights, traffic maps, images, population, other
Yes
ArcView Grid (TXT)
Export
DTM, clutter classes, clutter heights, traffic maps, images, population, other
Yes (embedded in the data file)
Atoll Geo Data (AGD)
Both
Vector data, vector traffic maps, population, other
Yes (embedded in the data file)
Vertical Mapper (GRD, GRC)
Both
DTM, clutter classes, clutter heights, traffic maps, images, population, other
Yes (embedded in the data file)
ECW
Import
Images
Yes (via ERS files)
• • • •
WLD files may be used for georeferencing for any type of binary raster file. The smallest supported resolution for raster files is 1 m. There is no restriction on the resolution of images. DTM, clutter classes, and clutter height maps must have an integer resolution. All the raster maps you want to import in an ATL document must be represented in the same projection system.
8.1 Digital Terrain Model (DTM) The Digital Terrain Model (DTM) describes the ground elevation above the sea level. DTM maps are taken into account in path loss calculations by Atoll propagation models. DTM files provide altitude value z (in metre) on evenly spaced points. Abscissa and ordinate axes are respectively oriented in right and downwards directions. Space between points is defined by pixel size P (in metre). Pixel size must be the same in both directions. The first point given in the file corresponds to the centre of the top-left pixel of the map (northwest point georeferenced by Atoll).
Figure 8.1: Digital Terrain Model
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Four points (hence, four altitude values) are necessary to describe a “bin”; these points are bin vertices. Therefore, a DTM file that contains N x N bins requires N2 points (altitude values).
Figure 8.2: Schematic view of a DTM file DTM file formats supported by Atoll are: • • • • • •
Altitudes may differ within a bin. The method used to calculate altitudes in Atoll is described in the Technical Reference Guide. To display a DTM map, Atoll takes the altitude of the southwest point of each bin to assign a colour. In Atoll, DEM (Digital Elevation Model) is the same as Digital Terrain Model (DTM). In litterature, DEM and DTM may not have the same meaning. By definition, DEM refers to the altitude above sea level including ground and clutter, while DTM refers to the ground altitude above sea level alone.
8.2 Clutter Classes Clutter classes describe the land cover (dense urban, buildings, residential, forest, open, villages, etc.). The clutter classes map is a grid representing the ground with each bin assigned a clutter class code corresponding to its clutter type. It is possible to specify an average height for each clutter class in Atoll. Clutter class maps are taken into account in path loss calculations by Atoll propagation models. Clutter class files provide a clutter code per bin. Bin size is defined by pixel size P (in metre). Pixel size must be the same in both directions. Abscissa and ordinate axes are respectively oriented in right and downwards directions. The first point given in the file corresponds to the centre of the top-left pixel of the map (northwest point geo-referenced by Atoll.
Figure 8.3: Clutter Classes Atoll supports a maximum of 255 clutter classes (8 bits/pixel). A clutter classes file file that contains N x N bins requires N2 code values.
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BIL (8-bits) TIFF (8-bits) BMP (8-bit) Erdas Imagine (8-bits) Vertical Mapper (GRD, GRC) Planet (16-bits) The clutter code is the same inside a bin.
8.3 Clutter Heights Clutter height files provide a clutter height value per bin. Bin size is defined by pixel size P (in metre). Pixel size must be the same in both directions. Abscissa and ordinate axes are respectively oriented in right and downwards directions. First point given in the file corresponds to the centre of the top-left pixel of the map (northwest point geo-referenced by Atoll. Clutter height maps are taken into account in path loss calculations by Atoll propagation models. Clutter heights file formats supported by Atoll are: • • • • • •
Atoll considers the clutter height of the nearest point in calculations. The method used to determine clutter heights in Atoll is described in the Technical Reference Guide. To display a clutter height map, Atoll takes the altitude of the southwest point of each bin to assign a colour.
8.4 Traffic Data Atoll supports different kinds of traffic maps. User profile traffic maps based on user profile densities and sector traffic maps (vector traffic maps) support the following formats: • • • • •
MIF/TAB SHP DXF Planet AGD
User profile traffic maps based on user profile environments (raster traffic maps) support the following formats: • • • • • •
8.5 Vector Data Vector data may be polygons (regions, etc.), lines (roads, coastlines, etc.), or points (towns, etc.). Vector data can be imported in Atoll for display and to provide information about the geographic environment. Vector file formats supported by Atoll are: • • • • •
MIF/TAB SHP DXF Planet AGD
8.6 Images Images include air and satellite images. Images can be imported in Atoll for display and to provide information about the geographic environment. Image file formats supported by Atoll are: • • • • • • •
8.7 Population Data Population data describe the population distribution (number or density of inhabitants). Populataion data can be used in Atoll in clutter statistics and coverage prediction reports. Population data raster file formats supported by Atoll are: • • • •
Population data vector file formats supported by Atoll are: • • • •
MIF/TAB SHP Vertical Mapper (GRD, GRC) AGD
8.8 Custom Data It is possible to import custom geographic data types, other than those listed above, in Atoll. These maps can be taken into account in clutter statistics and coverage prediction reports. Custom file formats supported by Atoll are: • • • • • • • •
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8.9 Geographic Data File Formats 8.9.1 BIL Format Band Interleaved by Line is a method of organizing image data for multi-band images. It is a schema for storing the actual pixel values of an image in a file. The pixel data is typically preceded by a file header that contains auxiliary data about the image, such as the number of rows and columns in the image, a colour map, etc. BIL data stores pixel information band by band for each line, or row, of the image. BIL files are usually binary files without header. Data are stored starting from the Northwest corner of the area. Although BIL is a data organization schema, it is treated as an image format. An image description (number of rows and columns, number of bands, number of bits per pixel, byte order, etc.) has to be provided to be able to display the BIL file. This information is included in the header HDR file associated with the BIL file. An HDR file has the same name as the BIL file it refers to, and should be located in the same directory as the source file. The HDR structure is simple; it is an ASCII text file containing eleven lines. You can open an HDR file using any ASCII text editor.
8.9.1.1 HDR Header File The header file is a text file that describes how data are organised in the BIL file. The header file is made of rows, each row having the following format: keyword
value
where ‘keyword’ corresponds to an attribute type, and ‘value’ defines the attribute value. Keywords required by Atoll are described below. Other keywords are ignored. nrows
Number of rows in the image.
ncols
Number of columns in the image.
nbands
Number of spectral bands in the image, (1 for DTM and 8 bit pictures).
nbits
Number of bits per pixel per band; 8 or 16 for DTMs or Clutter heights (altitude in metres), 8 for clutter classes file (clutter code), 16 for path loss matrices (path loss in dB, field value in dBm, dBµV and DBµV/m).
byteorder Byte order in which image pixel values are stored. Accepted values are M (Motorola byte order) or I (Intel byte order). layout
Must be ‘bil’.
skipbytes Byte to be skipped in the image file in order to reach the beginning of the image data. Default value is 0. ulxmap
x coordinate of the centre of the upper-left pixel.
ulymap
y coordinate of the centre of the upper-left pixel.
xdim
x size in metre of a pixel.
ydim
y size in metre of a pixel.
Four additional keywords may be optionally managed. pixeltype Type of data read (in addition to the length) This can be: UNSIGNDINT
Undefined
8, 16, 24 or 32 bits
SIGNEDINT
Integer
16 or 32 bits
FLOAT
Real
32 or 64 bits
In some cases, this keyword can be replaced by datatype defined as follows: datatype
Type of data read (in addition to the length)
This can be:
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The other optional keywords are: valueoffset, valuescale, and nodatavalue. By default, integer data types are chosen with respect to the pixel length (nbits). valueoffset
Real value to be added to the read value (Vread)
valuescale
Scaling factor to be applied to the read value
So, we have V = V read × valuescale + valueoffset nodatavalue
Value corresponding to “NO DATA”
DTM Sample Here, the data is 20 m. nrows
1500
ncols
1500
nbands
1
nbits
8 or 16
byteorder M layout
bil
skipbytes 0 ulxmap
975000
ulymap
1891000
xdim
20.00
ydim
20.00
Clutter Classes Sample nrows
1500
ncols
1500
nbands
1
nbits
8
byteorder M layout
bil
skipbytes 0 ulxmap
975000
ulymap
1891000
xdim
20.00
ydim
20.00
8.9.2 TIFF Format Tagged Image File Format supports all image types (monochrome, greyscale, palette colour, and RGB full colour images). TIFF files are not systematically geo-referenced. You have to enter spatial references of the image manually during the import procedure (x and y-axis map coordinates of the centre of the upper-left pixel, pixel size); an associated file with TFW extension will be simultaneously created with the same name and in the same directory as the TIFF file it refers to. Atoll will then use the TFW file during the import procedure for an automatic geo-referencing.
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• • •
•
•
Tiled TIFF format is not supported. You can modify the colour palette convention used by Atoll when exporting TIFF files. For more information, see "Setting the TIFF Colour Convention" on page 170. It is possible to import Packbit, FAX-CCITT3, and LZW compressed TIFF files. However, in case of DTM and clutter, it is recommended to use uncompressed files for better performance. Large uncompressed files can be split into smaller ones. If you are using compressed TIFF files, performance may be improved by either hiding the Status Bar or by hiding some of the information displayed in the Status Bar (altitude, clutter class, or clutter height). For more information, see "Hiding Information Displayed in the Status Bar" on page 179. Compressed TIFF files can be exported to uncompressed TIFF files using Atoll.
8.9.2.1 TFW Header File TFW files contain the spatial reference data of associated TIFF files. The TFW file structure is simple; it is an ASCII text file that contains six lines. You can open a TFW file using any ASCII text editor. The TFW file structure is as follows:
a.
Line
Description
1
x dimension of a pixel in map units
2a
amount of translation
3
amount of rotation
4
negative of the y dimension of a pixel in map units
5
x-axis map coordinate of the centre of the upper-left pixel
6
y-axis map coordinate of the centre of the upper-left pixel
Atoll does not use the lines 2 and 3 when importing a TIFF format geographic file.
8.9.3 BMP Format BMP format supports black & white, 16-, 256- and true-colour images. The image data may either contain pointers to entries in a colour table or literal RGB values. BMP files are not systematically geo-referenced. You have to enter spatial references of the image manually during the import procedure (x and y-axis map coordinates of the centre of the upper-left pixel, pixel size). When exporting (saving) a BMP file, an associated file with BPW extension is created with the same name and in the same directory as the BMP file it refers to. Atoll stores the georeferencing information in this file for future imports of the BMP so that the BPW file can be used during the import procedure for automatic geo-referencing. Atoll also supports BMW extension for the BMP related world files.
8.9.3.1 BMP File Structure A BMP file has the following data structure: • • • •
BITMAPFILEHEADER (bmfh) contains some information about the bitmap file (about the file, not about the bitmap itself). BITMAPINFOHEADER (bmih) contains information about the bitmap (such as size, colours, etc.). RGBQUAD contains a colour table. BYTE contains the image data (whose format is specified by the bmih structure).
The following tables give exact information about the data structures. The Start-value is the position of the byte in the file at which the explained data element of the structure starts, the Size-value contains the number of bytes used by this data element, the Name column contains both generic name and the name assigned to this data element by the Microsoft API documentation, and the Description column gives a short explanation of the purpose of this data element. •
BITMAPFILEHEADER (Header - 14 bytes):
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Must always be set to 'BM' to declare that this is a BMP file
3
4
FileSize
bfSize
Specifies the size of the file in bytes.
7
2
Reserved1
bfReserved1
Not used. Must be set to zero.
9
2
Reserved2
bfReserved2
Not used. Must be set to zero.
11
4
DataOffset
bfOffBits
Specifies the offset from the beginning of the file to the bitmap raster data.
•
BITMAPINFOHEADER (InfoHeader - 40 bytes):
Start
Size
15
Name
Description
Generic
MS API
4
Size
biSize
Specifies the size of the BITMAPINFOHEADER structure, in bytes (= 40 bytes).
19
4
Width
biWidth
Specifies the width of the image, in pixels.
23
4
Height
biHeight
Specifies the height of the image, in pixels.
biPlanes
Specifies the number of planes of the target device, must be set to zero or 1.
biBitCount
Specifies the number of bits per pixel. 1 = monochrome pallete. # of colours = 1 4 = 4-bit palletized. # of colours = 16 8 = 8-bit palletized. # of colours = 256 16 = 16-bit palletized. # of colours = 65536 24 = 24-bit palletized. # of colours = 16M
27
29
2
Planes
2
BitCount
31
4
Compression
biCompression
Specifies the type of compression, usually set to zero. 0 = BI_RGB no compression 1 = BI_RLE8 8-bit RLE encoding 2 = BI_RLE4 4-bit RLE encoding
35
4
ImageSize
biSizeImage
Specifies the size of the image data, in bytes. If there is no compression, it is valid to set this element to zero.
39
4
XpixelsPerM
biXPelsPerMeter
Specifies the the horizontal pixels per meter.
43
4
YpixelsPerM
biYPelsPerMeter
Specifies the the vertical pixels per meter.
47
4
ColoursUsed
biClrUsed
Specifies the number of colours actually used in the bitmap. If set to zero the number of colours is calculated using the biBitCount element.
51
4
ColoursImportant
biClrImportant
Specifies the number of colour that are 'important' for the bitmap. If set to zero, all colours are considered important.
•
RGBQUAD array (ColorTable):
Start
Size
1
Name
Description
Generic
MS API
1
Blue
rgbBlue
Specifies the blue part of the colour
2
1
Green
rgbGreen
Specifies the green part of the colour
3
1
Red
rgbRed
Specifies the red part of the colour
4
1
Reserved
rgbReserved
Must always be set to zero
In a colour table (RGBQUAD), the specification for a colour starts with the blue byte, while in a palette a colour always starts with the red byte.
•
Pixel data: The interpretation of the pixel data depends on the BITMAPINFOHEADER structure. It is important to know that the rows of a BMP are stored upside down meaning that the uppermost row which appears on the screen is actually the
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lowermost row stored in the bitmap. Another important thing is that the number of bytes in one row must always be adjusted by appending zero bytes to fit into the border of a multiple of four (16-bit or 32-bit rows).
8.9.3.2 BMP Raster Data Encoding Depending on the image BitCount and on the Compression flag there are 6 different encoding schemes. In all of them, • • • •
Pixels are stored bottom-up, left-to-right. Pixel lines are padded with zeros to end on a 32-bit boundary. For uncompressed formats every line will have the same number of bytes. Colour indices are zero based, meaning a pixel colour of 0 represents the first colour table entry, a pixel colour of 255 (if there are that many) represents the 256th entry. For images with more than 256 colours there is no colour table.
Encoding type
BitCount Compression
1-bit B&W images
1
Remarks
0
Every byte holds 8 pixels, its highest order bit representing the leftmost pixel of these 8. There are 2 colour table entries. Some readers assume that 0 is black and 1 is white. If you are storing black and white pictures you should stick to this, with any other 2 colours this is not an issue. Remember padding with zeros up to a 32-bit boundary.
4-bit 16 colour images
4
0
Every byte holds 2 pixels, its high order 4 bits representing the left of those. There are 16 colour table entries. These colours do not have to be the 16 MS-Windows standard colours. Padding each line with zeros up to a 32-bit boundary will result in up to 28 zeros = 7 'wasted pixels'.
8-bit 256 colour images
8
0
Every byte holds 1 pixel. There are 256 colour table entries. Padding each line with zeros up to a 32-bit boundary will result in up to 3 bytes of zeros = 3 'wasted pixels'.
16-bit High colour images
16
0
Every 2 bytes hold 1 pixel. There are no colour table entries. Padding each line with zeros up to a 16-bit boundary will result in up to 2 zero bytes.
24-bit True colour images
24
0
Every 4 bytes hold 1 pixel. The first holds its red, the second its green, and the third its blue intensity. The fourth byte is reserved and should be zero. There are no colour table entries. No zero padding necessary.
2
Pixel data is stored in 2-byte chunks. The first byte specifies the number of consecutive pixels with the same pair of colour. The second byte defines two colour indices. The resulting pixel pattern will have interleaved highorder 4-bits and low order 4 bits (ABABA...). If the first byte is zero, the second defines an escape code. The End-of-Bitmap is zero padded to end on a 32-bit boundary. Due to the 16bit-ness of this structure this will always be either two zero bytes or none.
1
The pixel data is stored in 2-byte chunks. The first byte specifies the number of consecutive pixels with the same colour. The second byte defines their colour indices. If the first byte is zero, the second defines an escape code. The End-of-Bitmap is zero padded to end on a 32-bit boundary. Due to the 16bit-ness of this structure this will always be either two zero bytes or none.
4-bit 16 colour images
8-bit 256 colour images
4
8
8.9.3.3 Raster Data Compression The following table provides the description of the raster data compression for 4-bit, 16 colour images: n (Byte 1) c (Byte 2)
Description
>0
any
n pixels to be drawn. The 1st, 3rd, 5th, ... pixels' colour is in c's high-order 4 bits, the even pixels' colour is in c's low-order 4 bits. If both colour indices are the same, it results in just n pixels of colour c.
0
0
End-of-line
0
1
End-of-Bitmap
0
2
Delta. The following 2 bytes define an unsigned offset in x and y direction (y being up). The skipped pixels should get a colour zero.
0
>=3
The following c bytes will be read as single pixel colours just as in uncompressed files. Up to 12 bits of zeros follow, to put the file/memory pointer on a 16-bit boundary again.
The following table provides the description of the raster data compression for 8-bit, 256 colour images:
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Delta. The following 2 bytes define an unsigned offset in x and y direction (y being up). The skipped pixels should get a colour zero.
0
>=3
The following c bytes will be read as single pixel colours just as in uncompressed files. A zero follows, if c is odd, putting the file/memory pointer on a 16-bit boundary again.
8.9.3.4 BPW/BMW Header File The header file is a text file that describes how data are organised in the BMP file. The header file is made of rows, each row having the following description: Line
Description
1
x dimension of a pixel in map units
2
amount of translation
3
amount of rotation
4
negative of the y dimension of a pixel in map units
5
x-axis map coordinate of the centre of the upper-left pixel
6
y-axis map coordinate of the centre of the upper-left pixel
Atoll supports BPW and BMW header file extensions for Import, but exports headers with BPW file extensions. Clutter Classes Sample 100.00 0.00 0.00 -100.00 60000.00 2679900.00
8.9.4 PNG Format Portable Network Graphics (PNG) is a bitmapped image format that employs lossless data compression. PNG supports palettebased (palettes of 24-bit RGB or 32-bit RGBA colors), greyscale, RGB, or RGBA images. PNG was designed for transferring images on the Internet, not professional graphics, and so does not support other color spaces (such as CMYK). When exporting (saving) a PNG file, an associated file with PGW extension is created with the same name and in the same directory as the PNG file it refers to. Atoll stores the georeferencing information in this file for future imports of the PNG so that the PGW file can be used during the import procedure for automatic geo-referencing. For more information on the PNG file format, see www.w3.org/TR/PNG/.
8.9.4.1 PGW Header File A PNG world file (PGW file) is a plain text file used by geographic information systems (GIS) to provide georeferencing information for raster map images in PNG format. The world file parameters are:
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Line
Description
1
x dimension of a pixel in map units
2
amount of translation
3
amount of rotation
4
negative of the y dimension of a pixel in map units
5
x-axis map coordinate of the centre of the upper-left pixel
6
y-axis map coordinate of the centre of the upper-left pixel
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8.9.5 DXF Format Atoll is capable of importing and working with AutoCAD drawings in the Drawing Interchange Format (DXF). DXF files can have ASCII or binary formats. But only the ASCII DXF files can be used in Atoll. DXF files are composed of pairs of codes and associated values. The codes, known as group codes, indicate the type of value that follows. DXF files are organized into sections of records containing the group codes and their values. Each group code and value is a separate line. Each section starts with a group code 0 followed by the string, SECTION. This is followed by a group code 2 and a string indicating the name of the section (for example, HEADER). Each section ends with a 0 followed by the string ENDSEC.
8.9.6 SHP Format ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.) ArcView GIS Shape files have a simple, non-topological format for storing geometric locations and attribute information of geographic features. A shape file is one of the spatial data formats that you can work with in ArcExplorer. SHP files usually have associated SHX and DBF files. The SHP file stores the feature geometry, the SHX file stores the index of the feature geometry, and the DBF file stores the attribute information of features. When a shape file is added as a theme to a view, this file is displayed as a feature table. You can define mappings between the coordinate system used for the ESRI vector files, defined in the corresponding PRJ files, and Atoll. In this way, when you import a vector file, Atoll can detect the correct coordinate system automatically. For more information about defining the mapping between coordinate systems, see "Mapping Atoll Coordinate Systems with MapInfo/ ESRI Vector Files" on page 172.
8.9.7 MIF Format MapInfo Interchange Format (MIF) allows various types of data to be attached to a variety of graphical items. These ASCII files are editable, easy to generate, and work on all platforms supported by MapInfo. Two files, a MIF and a MID file, contain MapInfo data. Graphics reside in the MIF file while the text contents are stored in the MID file. The text data is delimited with one row per record, and Carriage Return, Carriage Return plus Line Feed, or Line Feed between lines. The MIF file has two sections, the file header and the data section. The MID file is optional. When there is no MID file, all fields are blank. You can find more information at http://www.mapinfo.com. You can define mappings between the coordinate system used for the MapInfo vector files, defined in the corresponding MIF files, and Atoll. In this way, when you import a vector file, Atoll can detect the correct coordinate system automatically. For more information about defining the mapping between coordinate systems, see "Mapping Atoll Coordinate Systems with MapInfo/ESRI Vector Files" on page 172.
8.9.8 TAB Format TAB files (MapInfo Tables) are the native format of MapInfo. They actually consist of a number of files with extensions such as TAB, DAT, and MAP. All of these files need to be present and kept together for the table to work. These are defined as follows: • • • • •
TAB: table structure in ASCII format DAT: table data storage in binary format MAP: storage of map objects in binary format ID: index to the MapInfo graphical objects (MAP) file IND: index to the MapInfo tabular (DAT) file
You can find more information at http://www.mapinfo.com. You can define mappings between the coordinate system used for the MapInfo vector files, defined in the corresponding MIF files, and Atoll. In this way, when you import a vector file, Atoll can detect the correct coordinate system automatically. For more information about defining the mapping between coordinate systems, see "Mapping Atoll Coordinate Systems with MapInfo/ESRI Vector Files" on page 172. TAB files are also supported as georeference information files for raster files (BMP and TIFF). The TAB file must have the following format: !table !version 300 !charset WindowsLatin1 Definition Table File "raster.bmp" Type "RASTER"
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(ulxmap,ulymap) (0,0) Label "Pt 1", (llxmap,llymap) (0,nrows) Label "Pt 2", (lrxmap,lrymap) (ncols,nrows) Label "Pt 3", (urxmap,urymap) (ncols,0) Label "Pt 4" The fields in bold are described below: Field
Description
File "raster.bmp"
Name of the raster file (e.g., raster.bmp)
ulxmap
x coordinate of the centre of the upper-left pixel in metres
ulymap
y coordinate of the centre of the upper-left pixel in metres
llxmap
x coordinate of the centre of the lower-left pixel in metres
llymap
y coordinate of the centre of the lower-left pixel in metres
lrxmap
x coordinate of the centre of the lower-right pixel in metres
lrymap
y coordinate of the centre of the lower-right pixel in metres
urxmap
x coordinate of the centre of the upper-right pixel in metres
urymap
y coordinate of the centre of the upper-right pixel in metres
nrows
Number of rows in the image
ncols
Number of columns in the image
8.9.9 ECW Format The Enhanced Compressed Wavelet (ECW) files are geo-referenced image files. The ECW format is developed by Earth Resource Mapping. ECW can compress images with up to a 100-to-1 compression ratio. Each compressed image file contains a header carrying the following information about the image: • • • • • •
The image size expressed as the number of cells across and down The number of bands (RGB images have three bands) The image compression rate The cell measurement units (meters, degrees or feet) The size of each cell in measurement units Coordinate space information (Projection, Datum etc.)
8.9.10 Erdas Imagine Format Erdas Imagine IMG files use the Erdas Imagine Hierarchical File Format (HFA) structure. For any type of file, if there are pyramids (storage of different resolution layers), they are used to enhance performance when decreasing the resolution of the display. Some aspects of working with Erdas Imagine format in Atoll are: • • • •
Atoll supports uncompressed as well as compressed (or partially compressed) IMG files for DTM. You can create an MNU file to improve the clutter class map loading. The colour-to-code association (raster maps) may be automatically imported from the IMG file. These files are automatically geo-referenced, i.e., they do not require any additional file for geo-reference.
For image files, the number of supported bands is either 1 (colour palette is defined separately) or 3 (no colour palette but direct RGB information for each pixel). In case of 3 bands, only 8 bit per pixel format is supported. Therefore, 8-bit images, containing RGB information (three bands are provided: the first band is for Blue, the second one is for Green and the third for Red), can be considered as 24 bit per pixel files. 32 bit per pixel files are not supported. •
•
If you are using compressed Erdas Imagine files, performance may be improved by either hiding the Status Bar or by hiding some of the information displayed in the Status Bar (altitude, clutter class, or clutter height). For more information, see "Hiding Information Displayed in the Status Bar" on page 179. Compressed files can be exported to uncompressed files using Atoll.
8.9.11 Planet EV/Vertical Mapper Geographic Data Format Vertical Mapper offers two types of grids: •
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Numerical continuous grids, which contain numerical information (such as DTM), and are stored in files with the GRD extension.
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•
Classified grids, which contain alphanumeric (characters) information, and are stored in files with the GRC extension.
Atoll is capable of supporting the Vertical Mapper Classified Grid (GRC) and Vertical Mapper Continuous Grid (GRD) file formats in order to import and export: • •
GRD: DTM, image, population, traffic density, and other data types. GRC: DTM, clutter classes, clutter heights, environment traffic, image, population, and other data types.
It is also possible to export coverage predictions in GRD and GRC formats. This is the geographic data format used by Planet EV. So, it is possible to directly import geographic data from Planet EV to Atoll using this format.
8.9.12 ArcView Grid Format The ArcView Grid format (TXT) is an ASCII format dedicated to defining raster maps. It may be used to export any raster map such as DTM, images, clutter classes and/or heights, population, other data maps, and even coverage predictions. The contents of an ArcView Grid file are in ASCII and consist of a header, describing the content, followed by the content in the form of cell values. The format of these files is as follows: ncols XXX
Number of columns of the grid (XXX columns).
nrows XXX
Number of rows of the grid (XXX rows).
xllcenter XXX xllcorner XXX
OR Significant value relative to the bin centre or corner.
yllcenter yllcorner XXX
OR Significant value relative to the bin centre or corner.
cellsize XXX
Grid resolution.
nodata_value XXXOptional value corresponding to no data (no information). //Row 1 Top of the raster. Description of the first row. Syntax: ncols number of values separated by spaces. : : //Row N
8.9.13 Other File Formats Atoll supports IST and DIS formats. These are ASCII files used for Digital Terrain Models only. IST images come from Istar and DIS images come from IGN (Institut Géographique National). The IST format works in exactly the same way as the BIL format, except for DTM images. For DTM images, the IST format uses a decimetric coding for altitudes, whereas BIL images use only a metric coding.
8.9.14 Generic Raster Header File WLD is a new Atoll specific header format that can be used for any raster data file for georeferencing. At the time of import of any raster data file, Atoll can use the corresponding WLD file to read the georeferencing information related to the raster data file. The WLD file contains the spatial reference data of any associated raster data file. The WLD file structure is simple; it is an ASCII text file containing six lines. You can open a WLD file using any ASCII text editor. The WLD file is a text file that describes how data are organised in the associated raster data file. The header file is made of rows, each row having the following description:
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8.9.15 Planet Formats The Planet geographic data are described by a set of files stored in the same location. The directory structure depends on the geographic data type.
8.9.15.1 DTM Files The DTM directory consists of three files; the height file and two other files detailed below: •
The index file structure is simple; it is an ASCII text file that holds position information about the file. It contains five columns. You can open an index file using any ASCII text editor. The format of the index file is as follows: Field
Type
Description
File name
Text
Name of file referenced by the index file
East min
Float
x-axis map coordinate of the centre of the upper-left pixel in meters
East max
Float
x-axis map coordinate of the centre of the upper-right pixel in meters
North min
Float
y-axis map coordinate of the centre of the lower-left pixel in meters
North max
Float
y-axis map coordinate of the centre of the upper-left pixel in meters
Square size
Float
Dimension of a pixel in meters
•
The projection file provides information about the projection system used. This file is optional. It is an ASCII text file with four lines maximum. Line
Description
Spheroid Zone Projection Central meridian
Latitude and longitude of projection central meridian and equivalent x and y coordinates in meters (optional)
In the associated binary file, the value -9999 corresponds to ‘No data’ which is supported by Atoll.
Sample Index file associated with height file (DTM data): sydney1
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8.9.15.2 Clutter Class Files The Clutter directory consists of three files; the clutter file and two other files detailed below: •
The menu file, an ASCII text file, defines the feature codes for each type of clutter. It consists of as many lines (with the following format) as there are clutter codes in the clutter data files. This file is optional. Field
Type
Description
Clutter-code
Integer (>1)
Identification code for clutter class
Feature-name
Text (32)
Name associated with the clutter-code. (It may contain spaces)
•
The index file gives clutter spatial references. The structure of clutter index file is the same as the structure of DTM index file. In the associated binary file, the value -9999 corresponds to ‘No data’ which is supported by Atoll.
Sample Menu file associated with the clutter file: 1
open
2
sea
3
inlandwater
4
residential
5
meanurban
6
denseurban
7
buildings
8
village
9
industrial
10
openinurban
11
forest
12
parks
13
denseurbanhigh
14
blockbuildings
15
denseblockbuild
16
rural
17
mixedsuburban
8.9.15.3 Vector Files Vector data comprises terrain features such as coastlines, roads, etc. Each of these features is stored in a separate vector file. Four types of files are used, the vector file, where x and y coordinates of vector paths are stored, and three other files detailed below: •
The menu file, an ASCII text file, lists the vector types stored in the database. The menu file is composed of one or more records with the following structure: Field
Type
Description
Vector type code
Integer (>0)
Identification code for the vector type
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The index file, an ASCII text file, lists the vector files and associates each vector file with one vector type, and optionally with one attribute file. The index file consists of one or more records with the following structure: Field
Type
Description
Vector file name
Text (32)
Name of the vector file
Attribute file name
Text (32)
Name of attribute file associated with the vector file (optional)
Dimensions
Real
eastmin: minimum x-axis coordinate of all vector path points in the vector file eastmax: maximum x-axis coordinate of all vector path points in the vector file northmin: minimum y-axis coordinate of all vector path points in the vector file northmax: maximum y-axis coordinate of all vector path points
Vector type name
Text (32)
Name of the vector type with which the vector file is associated. This one must match exactly a vector type name field in the menu file.
The fields are separated by spaces. •
The attribute file stores the height and description properties of vector paths. This file is optional.
8.9.15.4 Image Files The image directory consists of two files, the image file with TIFF extension and an index file with the same structure as the DTM index file structure.
8.9.15.5 Text Data Files The text data directory consists of: •
The text data files are ASCII text files with the following format:
Airport 637111.188 3094774.00 Airport 628642.688 3081806.25 Each file contains a line of text followed by easting and northing of that text, etc. •
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The index file, an ASCII text file, stores the position of each text file. It consists of one or more records with the following structure: Field
Type
Description
File name
Text (32)
File name of the text data file
East Min
Real
Minimum x-axis coordinate of all points listed in the text data file
East Max
Real
Maximum x-axis coordinate of all points listed in the text data file
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Field
Type
Description
North Min
Real
Minimum y-axis coordinate of all points listed in the text data file
North Max
Real
Maximum y-axis coordinate of all points listed in the text data file
Text feature
Text (32)
This field is omitted in case no menu file is available.
The fields are separated by spaces. railwayp.txt -260079 693937 2709348 3528665 Railway_Station airport.txt -307727 771663 2547275 3554675 Airport ferryport.txt 303922 493521 2667405 3241297 Ferryport •
The menu file, an ASCII text file, contains the text features. This file is optional.
1
Airport
2
Ferryport
3
Railway_Station
8.9.15.6 MNU Format An MNU file is used for importing clutter classes or raster traffic files in TIFF, BIL, and IMG formats. It gives the mapping between the clutter or traffic class code and the class name. It is a text file with the same name as the clutter or traffic file with MNU extension. It must be stored at the same folder as the clutter or traffic file. It has the same structure as the menu file used in the Planet format. Field
Type
Description
Class code
Integer (>0)
Identification code for the clutter (or traffic) class
Class name
Text (50)
Name of the clutter (or traffic) class. It may contain spaces.
Either space or tab can be used as the separator. Clutter Classes Sample An MNU file associated to a clutter classes file: 0
none
1
open
2
sea
3
inland_water
4
residential
5
meanurban
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9 Radio Data Formats Radio network data in Atoll includes the following, depending on the technology used in the network being planned: • • • •
• • • • • • • •
Site: The geographic location of transmitters (sectors, installed antennas, other equipment). A site can have one or more transmitters. Antenna: The radiation patterns and gains for antennas installed at transmitters. Transmitter: A group of radio devices installed at a site with there transmission/reception characteristics (antennas, feeders, TMAs, other equipment). A transmitter can have one or more cells or subcells. Cell: An RF carrier available at a transmitter in UMTS, CDMA2000, TD-SCDMA, LTE, and WiMAX networks. A cell is fully defined by the "transmitter-carrier" pair. Each cell in these networks is independent, i.e., has its own identifier, power levels, performance characteristics. TRX: An RF carrier available at a transmitter in GSM networks. A transciever (TRX) can carry one ARFCN which may correspond to the BCCH (7 traffic timeslots) or TCH (8 traffic timeslots). Subcell: A subcell is a group of TRXs with the same radio characteristics. A subcell is fully defined by the "transmitterTRX type" pair. Base station: This is the generic name for a cell site ("site-transmitter-cell" or "site-transmitter-subcells"). Technologyspecific names can be BTS, Node-B, eNode-B, etc. RF repeater: An RF repeater receives, amplifies, and retransmits RF carriers both in downlink and uplink. The repeater receives signals from a donor transmitter which it retransmits using a coverage-side antenna with amplification. Remote antenna: Transmitter antennas located at a remote location with respect to the transmitter’s site. Microwave link: A point-to-point link using microwave frequencies used for backhaul in radio access networks or for fixed wireless access. PMP microwave link: A group of microwave links originating from a common node to serve more than one location. Passive microwave repeater: A passive microwave repeater receives and retransmits microwave signals without amplification. Passive repeaters do not have power sources of their own. Active repeaters, on the other hand, amplify the received signal. Reflectors are examples of passive repeaters.
9.1 XML Import/Export Format All the data tables in an Atoll document can be exported to XML files. Atoll creates the following files when data tables are exported to XML files: • •
An index.xml file which contains the mapping between the data tables in Atoll and the XML file created for each table. One XML file per data table which contains the data table format (schema) and the data.
When XML files are imported to a document, the table and field definitions are not modified, i.e., the Networks and CustomFields tables are exported to XML file but are not imported. The following sections describe the structures of the XML files created at export.
9.1.1 Index.xml File Format The index.xml file stores the system (GSM, UMTS, etc.) and the technology (TDMA, CDMA, etc.) of the document, and the version of Atoll used for exporting the data tables to XML files. It also contains the mapping between the data tables in the Atoll document and the XML file corresponding to each data table. The root tag of the index.xml file contains the following attributes: Attribute
Description
Atoll_File_System
Corresponds to the SYSTEM_ field of the Networks table of the exported document
Atoll_File_Technology
Corresponds to the TECHNOLOGY field of the Networks table of the exported document
Atoll_File_Version
Corresponds to the Atoll version
The index file also contains the mapping between the tables exported from Atoll and the XML files corresponding to each table. This list is sorted in the order in which tables must be imported in Atoll. The list is composed of tags with the following attributes: Attribute
Description
XML_File
Corresponds to the exported XML file name (e.g., "Sites.xml")
Atoll_Table
Corresponds to the exported Atoll table name (e.g., "Sites")
A sample extract of the index.xml is given below:
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9.1.2 XML File Format Atoll creates an XML file per exported data table. This XML file has two sections, one for storing the description of the table structure, and the second for the data itself. The XML file uses the standard XML rowset schema (schema included in the XML file between and tags). Rowset Schema The XML root tag for XML files using the rowset schema is the following: The schema definition follows the root tag and is enclosed between the following tags: and tags -> In the rowset schema, after the schema description, the data are enclosed between and . Between these tags, each record is handled by a tag having its attributes set to the record field values since in the rowset schema, values are handled by attributes. Note that no closing tag is required. A sample extract of a Sites.xml file containing the Sites table with only one site is given below:
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9.2 RF 2D Antenna Pattern Format This section describes the format of the DIAGRAM field of the Antennas table. This field stores the antenna diagrams in a 2D (angle vs. attenuation) format. This is the format of the contents of the DIAGRAM field of the Antennas table when it is copied from, pasted to, imported to (from TXT or CSV files), and exported from (from TXT, CSV, or XLS files) the Antennas table. Antenna patterns can also be imported in Planet 2D-format antenna files and 3D antenna files. The file format required for 3D antenna file import is described in "Import Format of 3D Antenna Pattern Text Files" on page 107. The format of 2D antenna patterns containing co-polar diagrams only can be understood from Figure 9.1 on page 105. Pattern Discriptor 1
Co-polar Horizontal Diagram
Pattern Discriptor 2
Co-polar Vertical Diagram
End
2 0 0 360 0 0 1 0 2 0.1 … 1 0 360 0 0 1 0.1 … 0 Figure 9.1: 2D RF Antenna Pattern Format Containing Co-polar Diagrams Only The contents of the DIAGRAM field are formatted as follows: •
Pattern Descriptor 1: Space-separated list of parameters. • First entry: The number of co-polar diagrams. For example, 2. • Second entry: First co-polar diagram type = 0 for azimuth (horizontal) diagram. • Third entry: The elevation angle of the azimuth diagram. • Fourth entry: The number of angle-attenuation pairs in the first co-polar diagram. For example, 360.
•
Co-polar Horizontal Diagram: Horizontal co-polar diagram (the second entry in the preceding descriptor is 0). The format is space-separated angle attenuation pairs. For example, 0 0 1 0 2 0.1....
•
Pattern Descriptor 2: Space-separated list of parameters. • First entry: Second co-polar diagram type = 1 for elevation (vertical) diagram. • Second entry: The azimuth angle of the elevation diagram. • Third entry: The number of angle-attenuation pairs in the second co-polar diagram. For example, 360.
•
Co-polar Vertical Diagram: Vertical co-polar diagram (the first entry in the preceding descriptor is 1). The format is space-separated angle attenuation pairs. For example, 0 0 1 0.1....
•
End: The number cross-polar diagrams = 0.
The format of 2D antenna patterns containing co-polar and cross-polar diagrams can be understood from Figure 9.2 on page 106.
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2 0 0 360 0 0 1 0 2 0.1 … 1 0 360 0 0 1 0.1 … 2 0 0 360 0 0 1 0 2 0.1 … 1 0 360 0 0 1 0.1 … Figure 9.2: 2D RF Antenna Pattern Format Containing Co-polar and Cross-polar Diagrams The contents of the DIAGRAM field are formatted as follows: •
Pattern Descriptor 1: Space-separated list of parameters. • First entry: The number of co-polar diagrams. For example, 2. • Second entry: First co-polar diagram type = 0 for azimuth (horizontal) diagram. • Third entry: The elevation angle of the azimuth diagram. • Fourth entry: The number of angle-attenuation pairs in the first co-polar diagram. For example, 360.
•
Co-polar Horizontal Diagram: Horizontal co-polar diagram (the second entry in the preceding descriptor is 0). The format is space-separated angle attenuation pairs. For example, 0 0 1 0 2 0.1....
•
Pattern Descriptor 2: Space-separated list of parameters. • First entry: Second co-polar diagram type = 1 for elevation (vertical) diagram. • Second entry: The azimuth angle of the elevation diagram. • Third entry: The number of angle-attenuation pairs in the second co-polar diagram. For example, 360.
•
Co-polar Vertical Diagram: Vertical co-polar diagram (the first entry in the preceding descriptor is 1). The format is space-separated angle attenuation pairs. For example, 0 0 1 0.1....
•
Pattern Descriptor 3: Space-separated list of parameters. • First entry: The number of cross-polar diagrams. For example, 2. • Second entry: First cross-polar diagram type = 0 for azimuth (horizontal) diagram. • Third entry: The elevation angle of the azimuth diagram. • Fourth entry: The number of angle-attenuation pairs in the first cross-polar diagram. For example, 360.
•
Cross-polar Horizontal Diagram: Horizontal cross-polar diagram (the second entry in the preceding descriptor is 0). The format is space-separated angle attenuation pairs. For example, 0 0 1 0 2 0.1....
•
Pattern Descriptor 4: Space-separated list of parameters. • First entry: Second cross-polar diagram type = 1 for elevation (vertical) diagram. • Second entry: The azimuth angle of the elevation diagram. • Third entry: The number of angle-attenuation pairs in the second cross-polar diagram. For example, 360.
•
Cross-polar Vertical Diagram: Vertical cross-polar diagram (the first entry in the preceding descriptor is 1). The format is space-separated angle attenuation pairs. For example, 0 0 1 0.1....
You may use a 3rd party software or develop a tool to to convert the contents of the DIAGRAM field into binary. In binary, each antenna is described by a header and a list of value pairs. The header is defined as follows: • • • • • • •
flag: (Integer, 32 bits) -1 for omni diagrams, 0 for directional num: (Short integer, 16 bits) Number of diagrams (0, 1, 2, 3, 4) siz0: (Short integer, 16 bits) Size of the first diagram (horizontal co-polar section, elevation = 0°) siz1: (Short integer, 16 bits) Size of the second diagram (vertical co-polar section, azimuth = 0°) siz2: (Short integer, 16 bits) Size of the third diagram (horizontal cross-polar) siz3: (Short integer, 16 bits) Size of the fourth diagram (vertical cross-polar) prec: (Short integer, 16 bits) Precision of the following angle values (100)
Then follows the content of each of the defined diagrams, i.e., the diagrams whose sizes (siz0, siz1, siz2, siz3) are not zero. Each diagram consists of a list of value pairs. The number of value pairs in a list depends on the value of the siz0, siz1, siz2, and siz3 parameters. For example, siz2 = 5 means there are five value pairs in the third diagram. The value pairs in each list are: • •
ang: (Short integer, 16 bits) The first component of the value pair is the angle in degrees multiplied by 100. For example, 577 means 5.77 degrees. loss: (Short integer, 16 bits) The second component of the value pair is the loss in dB for the given angle ang.
All the lists of value pairs are concatenated without a separator.
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AT310_AM_E2
9.3 Import Format of 3D Antenna Pattern Text Files Text files containing 3D antenna patterns that may be imported in Atoll must have the following format: • •
Header: The text file may contain a header with additional information. When you import the antenna pattern you can indicate the row number in the file where the header ends and the antenna pattern begins. Antenna Pattern: Each row contains three values to describe the 3D antenna pattern. The columns containing the values can be in any order: • Azimuth: Allowed range of values is from 0° to 360°. The smallest increment allowed is 1°. • Tilt: Allowed range of values is from -90° to 90° or from 0° to 180°. The smallest increment allowed is 1°. • Attenuation: The attenuation in dB.
9.4 Microwave 2D Antenna Pattern Format This section describes the format of the PATTERN field of the MW Antennas table. This field stores the antenna diagrams in a 2D (angle vs. attenuation) format. This is the format of the contents of the PATTERN field of the MW Antennas table when it is copied from, pasted to, imported to (from TXT or CSV files), and exported from (from TXT, CSV, or XLS files) the MW Antennas table. Antenna patterns can also be imported in Planet 2D-format antenna files and 3D antenna files. The file format required for 3D antenna file import is described in "Import Format of 3D Antenna Pattern Text Files" on page 107. The format of 2D antenna patterns can be understood from Figure 9.3 on page 107. Pattern Discriptor 1
Pattern Descriptor 1: Space-separated list of parameters. • First entry: The number of co-polar diagrams. For example, 4. • Second and third entries: First co-polar diagram type = 0 1, for H-V diagram. • Fourth entry: The elevation angle of the azimuth diagram. • Fifth entry: The number of angle-attenuation pairs in the first co-polar diagram. For example, 360.
•
Co-polar H-V Diagram: Co-polar H-V diagram (the second and third entries in the preceding descriptor are 0 1). The format is space-separated angle attenuation pairs. For example, 0 0 1 0.5....
•
Pattern Descriptor 2: Space-separated list of parameters. • First and second entries: Second co-polar diagram type = 0 0, for H-H diagram. • Third entry: The azimuth angle of the elevation diagram.
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Fourth entry: The number of angle-attenuation pairs in the second co-polar diagram. For example, 360.
•
Co-polar H-H Diagram: Co-polar H-H diagram (the first and second entries in the preceding descriptor are 0 0). The format is space-separated angle attenuation pairs. For example, 0 0 1 0.5....
•
Pattern Descriptor 3: Space-separated list of parameters. • First and second entries: Third co-polar diagram type = 1 1, for V-V diagram. • Third entry: The elevation angle of the azimuth diagram. • Fourth entry: The number of angle-attenuation pairs in the third co-polar diagram. For example, 360.
•
Co-polar V-V Diagram: Co-polar V-V diagram (the first and second entries in the preceding descriptor are 1 1). The format is space-separated angle attenuation pairs. For example, 0 0 1 0.5....
•
Pattern Descriptor 4: Space-separated list of parameters. • First and second entries: Fourth co-polar diagram type = 1 0, for V-H diagram. • Third entry: The azimuth angle of the elevation diagram. • Fourth entry: The number of angle-attenuation pairs in the fourth co-polar diagram. For example, 360.
•
Co-polar V-H Diagram: Co-polar V-H diagram (the first and second entries in the preceding descriptor are 1 0). The format is space-separated angle attenuation pairs. For example, 0 0 1 0.5....
•
Pattern Descriptor 5: Space-separated list of parameters. • First entry: The number of cross-polar diagrams. For example, 4. • Second and third entries: First cross-polar diagram type = 0 1, for H-V diagram. • Fourth entry: The elevation angle of the azimuth diagram. • Fifth entry: The number of angle-attenuation pairs in the first cross-polar diagram. For example, 360.
•
Cross-polar H-V Diagram: Cross-polar H-V diagram (the second and third entries in the preceding descriptor are 0 1). The format is space-separated angle attenuation pairs. For example, 0 0 1 0.5....
•
Pattern Descriptor 6: Space-separated list of parameters. • First and second entries: Second cross-polar diagram type = 0 0, for H-H diagram. • Third entry: The azimuth angle of the elevation diagram. • Fourth entry: The number of angle-attenuation pairs in the second cross-polar diagram. For example, 360.
•
Cross-polar H-H Diagram: Cross-polar H-H diagram (the first and second entries in the preceding descriptor are 0 0). The format is space-separated angle attenuation pairs. For example, 0 0 1 0.5....
•
Pattern Descriptor 7: Space-separated list of parameters. • First and second entries: Third cross-polar diagram type = 1 1, for V-V diagram. • Third entry: The elevation angle of the azimuth diagram. • Fourth entry: The number of angle-attenuation pairs in the third cross-polar diagram. For example, 360.
•
Cross-polar V-V Diagram: Cross-polar V-V diagram (the first and second entries in the preceding descriptor are 1 1). The format is space-separated angle attenuation pairs. For example, 0 0 1 0.5....
•
Pattern Descriptor 8: Space-separated list of parameters. • First and second entries: Fourth cross-polar diagram type = 1 0, for V-H diagram. • Third entry: The azimuth angle of the elevation diagram. • Fourth entry: The number of angle-attenuation pairs in the fourth cross-polar diagram. For example, 360.
•
Cross-polar V-H Diagram: Cross-polar V-H diagram (the first and second entries in the preceding descriptor are 1 0). The format is space-separated angle attenuation pairs. For example, 0 0 1 0.5....
9.5 Microwave NSMA Antenna File Formats You can import microwave antennas in Atoll from files in Planet microwave antenna and standard NSMA (National Spectrum Managers Association) formats, which are described in the WG16.89.003 and WG16.99.050 recommendations. The NSMA formats are described below.
9.5.1 WG 16.89.003 Format The antenna pattern file is an ASCII text file with the following structure: Field
108
Length (Char)
Description
Antenna Manufacturer
30
Name under which the data was filed with the FCC
Antenna Model number
30
Full model number as used when the data was filed with the FCC
Comment
30
Field for comments on the current revision
FCC ID number
16
ID number issued by the Common Carrier Branch of the FCC
Reverse pattern ID number
16
This lists the reverse pattern FCC ID number
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AT310_AM_E2
Field
Length (Char)
Description
Date of data
16
Date referenced on the published pattern
Manufacturer ID Number
16
Reference number assigned by the antenna manufacturer.
Frequency range
16
This is to identify the full frequency range for which this pattern is valid and agrees with the range as specified in the printed pattern. The frequency is in Megahertz.
Mid-band gain
16
Gain of the antenna at mid-band (dBi)
Half-power beam width
16
This is the included angle centered on the main beam of the antenna and defines the angle where the antenna response falls -3 dB
Polarization +Space +Data count +Space
Angle +Space +Antenna Response +Space
7 7
7 7
The data is preceded by an indication of the polarization the data. The commonly accepted polarization designators for linear polarization are to be used: HH: Horizontal polarized port response to a horizontally polarized signal in the horizontal direction. HV: Horizontal polarized port response to a vertically polarized signal in the horizontal direction. VV: Vertical polarized port response to a vertically polarized signal in the horizontal direction VH: Vertical polarized port response to a horizontally polarized signal in the horizontal direction ELHH: Horizontal polarized port response to a horizontally polarized signal in the vertical direction ELHV: Horizontal polarized port response to a vertically polarized signal in the vertical direction ELVV: Vertical polarized port response to a vertically polarized signal in the vertical direction ELVH: Vertical polarized port response to a horizontally polarized signal in the vertical direction The data count will be the number of data points to follow. All eight responses should be included. If different polarizations have identical responses, they are to be duplicated in order that a full set of data be listed. Full compliment of data will show the antenna response in the horizontal direction for a 'horizontal cut' and in the vertical direction for a 'vertical cut'. The data is presented in two columns. The angle of observation is listed first followed by the antenna response. For the horizontal direction, the angle of observation starts from -180 degrees (defined as the left side of the antenna) and decrease in angle to the main beam , 0 degrees, and then increase to +180 degrees. The full data will cover the 360 degrees of the antenna. For the vertical direction, the angle of observation starts from -5 (-90) degrees (defined as the antenna response below the main beam) and decrease in angle to the main beam, 0 degrees, and then increase to +5 (+90) degrees. The full data will cover the 10 (180) degrees centered about the main beam. The antenna response is listed as dB down from the main lobe response and is shown as negative.
Sample MARK ANTENNA PRODUCTS Inc. MHP-100A120D (none) M15028 M15027 11-25-85 NONE 10700-11700 MHZ 48.4 dB 0.6 Deg HH 39
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AT310_AM_E2
Field
Length (Char)
Abbreviated Name
Description
Revision Number
42
REVNUM
Version of this standard to which the pattern conforms
Revision Date
16
REVDAT
Date of the current revision of the standard
Comment1
80
COMNT1
Field for comments on the current revision
Comment2
80
COMNT2
Field for comments on the current revision
Antenna Manufacturer
42
ANTMAN
Name of the antenna manufacturer
Model Number
42
MODNUM
Full model number as used when the data was taken
Pattern ID Number
42
PATNUM
NSMA ID number
Pattern File Number
13
FILNUM
Used when more than one file is associated with a specific antenna model number. This field will contain the particular file number and the total number of files associated with that model number. An example of such a case would be a dual band antenna with two pattern files associated with it.
Feed Orientation
13
FEDORN
Orientation of the feed hook when looking from the back of the antenna in the direction of the mechanical boresite
Description1
80
DESCR1
Used to describe the antenna and its characteristics
Description2
80
DESCR2
Used to describe the antenna and its characteristics
Description3
80
DESCR3
Used to describe the antenna and its characteristics
Description4
80
DESCR4
Used to describe the antenna and its characteristics
Description5
80
DESCR5
Used to describe the antenna and its characteristics
Date of data
16
DTDATA
Date the pattern data was taken
LOWFRQ
Lower frequency of the operating bandwidth of the antenna (MHertz). If the antenna can be operated in two distinct frequency bands, then the performance of the antenna in each band shall be described in separate files.
Low Frequency (MHz)
21
High Frequency (MHz)
21
HGHFRQ
Upper frequency of the operating bandwidth of the antenna (MHertz). If the antenna can be operated in two distinct frequency bands, then the performance of the antenna in each band shall be described in separate files
Gain Units
15
GUNITS
Gain unit
Low-band gain
12
LWGAIN
Gain of the antenna at the low frequency of the frequency band. The gain is in units described in GUNITS
Mid-band gain
16
MDGAIN
Gain of the antenna at the mid frequency of the frequency band and may include a full bandwidth tolerance. The gain is in units described in GUNITS
High-band gain
12
HGGAIN
Gain of the antenna at high frequency of the frequency band. The gain is in units described in GUNITS
Mid-band Az Bmwdth
16
AZWIDT
Nominal total width of the main beam at the -3 dB points in the azimuth plane. This is a mid-band measurement expressed in degrees and may include a full bandwidth tolerance
Mid-band El Bmwdth
16
ELWIDT
Nominal total width of the main beam at the -3 dB points in the elevation plane. This is a mid-band measurement expressed in degrees and may include a full bandwidth tolerance
Connector Type
80
CONTYP
Description of the antenna connector type
VSWR
13
ATVSWR
Worst case limit of the antennas VSWR over the operating bandwidth
Front-to-back Ratio(dB)
10
FRTOBA
Worst case power level in dB between the main lobe peak and the peak of the antenna’s back lobe. The back lobe peak does not necessarily point 180 degrees behind the main lobe.
ELTILT
Amount that the main beam peak of the antenna (electrical boresite) is dowtilted below the mechanical boresite of the antenna. This is a midband measurement and may include a tolerance. This measurement is expressed in degrees.
Electrical Downtilt (deg)
16
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Height of the center of the radiating aperture above the mechanical bottom of the antenna (m). It is not necessarily the phase center of the antenna.
Port-to-Port Iso (dB)
12
POTOPO
Measurement made on dual polarization antennas. It is the maximum amount of power over the antennas operating bandwidth that is coupled between ports. It is the power ratio (dB) between a reference signal injected into one port and the amount of coupled power returned back out of the other port.
Max Input Power (W)
17
MAXPOW
Maximum amount of average RF input power which can be applied to each of the antennas input ports in the antennas operating frequency range (Watts).
Antenna Length (m)
14
ANTLEN
Mechanical length of the antenna (m). This does not include the antenna mount. For a circularly symmetric parabolic antenna this would be the diameter.
Antenna Width (m)
14
ANTWID
Mechanical width of the antenna (m). This does not include the antenna mount. For a circularly symmetric parabolic antenna this would be the diameter.
Antenna Depth (m)
14
ANTDEP
Mechanical depth antenna (m). This does not include the antenna mount.
Antenna Weight (kg)
16
ANTWGT
weight of the antenna in kg. This includes the antenna mount.
Future Field
80
FIELD1
Future Field
80
FIELD2
Future Field
80
FIELD3
Future Field
80
FIELD4
Future Field
80
FIELD5
Pattern Type
16
PATTYP
Pattern type, either “typical” or “envelope”.
# Freq this file
10
NOFREQ
The number of pattern frequencies which comprise the full data set.
Pattern Freq (Mhz)
21
PATFRE
Frequency of the pattern data for a typical pattern (MHz).
# Pattern cuts
11
NUMCUT
Number of pattern cuts which comprise the full data set.
Pattern Cut
11
PATCUT
Geometry of a particular pattern cut.
Polarization
15
POLARI
Particular polarization of a pattern cut. The first polarization is the polarization of the antenna-under-test and the second the polarization of the illuminating source. The two polarizations are separated by a /.
# Data Points
13
NUPOIN
The number of data points in a particular pattern cut data set.
First & Last Angle
25
FSTLST
The first and last angle (in degrees) of the antenna pattern data. Pattern data shall be expressed monotonically, with respect to angle. Azimuths shall be stated as either –180 to +180 or 0 to 360 degrees.
X-axis Orientation
53
XORIEN
A verbal description of the physical orientation of the x-axis on the antenna.
Y-axis Orientation
53
YORIEN
A verbal description of the physical orientation of the y-axis on the antenna.
Z-axis Orientation
53
ZORIEN
A verbal description of the physical orientation of the z-axis on the antenna.
Pattern cut data
28/point
End of file
11
The data is presented in three columns. The angle of observation is listed first followed by the antenna magnitude response and phase response. In most cases the phase response will not be included in the data set. “S” designates the sign of the number. The antenna power magnitude is listed in the units specified in the antenna units field (GUNITS). The angle and phase data are expressed in units of degrees. ENDFIL
This field designates the end of the file with the characters EOF
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9.6 Microwave NSMA Radio File Formats Atoll enables you to import microwave radios that are in standard NSMA (National Spectrum Managers Association) format defined by the recommendation WG 21.99.051 or in Pathloss format (version 4.0). The NSMA format is described below.
9.6.1 WG 21.99.051 Format The file is an ASCII text file with the extension NSM. It consists of rows; each data item is placed on a separate row started with the specific name of the item. The name and data items are separated with commas (,). Each text field is enclosed in double quotes (""). Numeric values are not enclosed with quotes and must not contain any embedded commas. The file has the following structure:
114
Row
Description
"$HDR", File type, "$"
File header. The file type indicates the data contained, the format and the version of the format. For version 1.0 of the Equipment format, this value must be “EQUIP1.0”.
"EQUIP_MFG", Equipment manufacturer
Manufacturer with no abbreviations
"MFG_MODEL", Model number
Manufacturer model number
"REV_NUM", Document revision number
Document revision number - Not used by Atoll
"REV_DATE", Document revision date
Document revision date - Date format: yyyy-mm-dd - Not used by Atoll
"RADIO_ID", Radio ID number
Radio identification - Not used by Atoll
"FCC_CODE", FCC code
FCC code - Not used by Atoll
"EQ_DATE", Equipment data date
Date equipment data was recorded by manufacturer - Date format: mm-dd-yyyy - Not used by Atoll
"EMISSION", Emission designator
Code designating the bandwidth and modulation type
"MAX_LOADING", Number of circuits
Number of voice circuits
"DATA_RATE", Data rate
Payload data rate in Mbits/s
"RADIO_CAP", Number of lines, Signal standard
Radio capacity - The Number of Lines is the number of installed DS1’s, DS3’s, etc. The Signal Standard is a text field for the type of interface (e.g., DS3)
"MODULATION", Modulation type
Type of modulation
"DEVIATION", Deviation
Frequency deviation in kHz (analog radio only) - Not used by Atoll
"FREQ_RANGE", Low frequency, High frequency
Frequency range in MHz over which this radio model works
"POWER_OPTION", Power #1, Power #2, etc.,
Transmit power options in dBm (when discrete power levels are available)
"POWER_RANGE", Transmit power low, Transmit power high
Transmit power range in dBm with adjustable power levels
"STABILITY", Carrier stability
Tolerance of transmitter output frequency expressed as a percent of carrier frequency - Not used by Atoll
"ATPC_POWER", Power reduction
ATPC power reduction in dB
"ATPC_STEP", Step size
ATPC step size in dB when power increases to compensate for reduction in receive level- Not used by Atoll
"ATPC_TRIG", Receiver level
Receiver level in dBm at which ATPC first activates - Not used by Atoll
"THRESH_DIG", Threshold for 10-6 BER, Threshold for 10-3 BER
Receiver threshold in dBm at the specified thresholds (digital radio only)
"THRESH_ANA", Threshold for 30dB analog signalto-noise level, Threshold for 37dB analog signal-tonoise level
Receiver threshold in dBm at the specified thresholds (analog radio only) - Not used by Atoll
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AT310_AM_E2
Row
Description
"BRANCHING", Configuration, Transmitter loss, Main receiver loss, Protect receiver loss
System configuration and branching losses in dB Configuration may be:NP = not protected; MHSB = monitored hot standby; MHSD = monitored hot space diversity; FD = frequency diversity diversity; 1:M = multiline
"MAX_RSL", Overflow threshold for 10-6 BER, Overflow threshold for 10-3 BER
Maximum receive level in dBm (overflow threshold)
"DFM", DFM for 10-6 BER, DFM for 10-3 BER
Dispersive fade margin (dB) at the specified BER (digital radio only) Not used by Atoll
"TX_SPECTRUM", Number of points
Number of points used to define the transmitter mask graph
"CURVE_POINT", Frequency shift in MHz, Response in dBm/4Hz
Data points of the transmitter mask graph
"TX_FILTER",
Not used by Atoll
"FCC_BANDWIDTH", FCC bandwidth
FCC channel bandwidth in MHz used to calculate the FCC spectrum mask - Not used by Atoll
"99%_BANDWIDTH", 99%power bandwidth
Bandwidth occupied by the transmitter in MHz (including 99% of the transmitted power)
"3DB_BANDWIDTH", 3dB bandwidth
Bandwidth occupied by the transmitter in MHz (between the 3dB points) - Not used by Atoll
"T/T_FREQ_SEP", Same Antenna&Polarization, Same Minimum required frequency separation between two transmitters Antenna & Different Polarization, Different Antenna in MHz - Not used by Atoll & Polarization "T/R_FREQ_SEP", Same Antenna&Polarization, Same Antenna & Different Polarization, Different Antenna & Polarization
Minimum required frequency separation between the closest transmitter and receiver in MHz - Not used by Atoll
Some radios only allow fixed transmit-receive frequency separations. If applicable, show all allowable frequency separations in MHz - Not used by Atoll
"T/I_LIKE", Number of points
Number of points used to define the Threshold-to-Interference (T/I) graph. The interfering transmitter and victim receiver are the same type of radio, using the same modulation and data rate.
"CURVE_POINT", Frequency shift in MHz, Response in dB
Data points of the T/I graph
"T/I_CW", Number of points
Number of points used to define the Threshold-to-Interference (T/I) graph. The interfering transmitter is a CW tone and the victim receiver is a digital radio. This T/I curve is used to model FM transmitters interfering into digital receivers - Not used by Atoll
"CURVE_POINT", Frequency shift in MHz, Response in dB
Data points of the T/I graph - Not used by Atoll
"T/I_OTHER", RADIO_ID, Interferor Bandwidth, Number of points
Other capacity radio into specified radio RADIO_ID refers to the Radio Identification of the interfering transmitter. Interferor Bandwidth shall correspond to the FCC or ITU emission bandwidth of the interferor, specified as a real number in MHz.
"CURVE_POINT", Frequency shift in MHz, Response in dB
Data points of the T/I graph
"BB_FREQ", Low frequency, High frequency
Baseband frequency range in kHz (analog radio only) - Not used by Atoll
"RX_RF_FILTER", Number of points
Number of points used to define the receiver mask graph
"CURVE_POINT", Frequency shift in MHz, Response in dB
Data points of the receiver mask graph
"RX_IF_FILTER", Number of points
Not used by Atoll
"CURVE_POINT", Frequency shift in MHz, Response in dB
Not used by Atoll
"IF_FILTER_EXT", Switch-on point, Number of points
Not used by Atoll
"CURVE_POINT", Frequency shift in MHz, Response in dB
Not used by Atoll
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"CURVE_POINT", Frequency shift in MHz, Response in dB
Not used by Atoll
"COM_COUNT", Number of comments
Number of comments
"COMMENT", Description #1
Comment
"COMMENT", Description #2
Comment
"COMMENT", Description #n
Comment
"$TLR", File type, "$"
File trailer. The file type indicates the data contained, the format and the version of the format. For version 1.0 of the Equipment format, this value must be “EQUIP1.0”.
9.7 Path Loss Matrix File Format When path loss matrices are stored externally, i.e., outside the ATL file, the path loss matrices folder contains a ‘pathloss.dbf’ file containing the calculation parameters of the transmitters and one LOS (path loss results) file per calculated transmitter. The path loss matrices folder also contains a LowRes folder with another pathloss.dbf file and one LOS (path loss results) file per transmitter that has an extended path loss matrix. The formats of the pathloss.dbf and LOS files are described here.
9.7.1 Pathloss.dbf File Format The pathloss.dbf file has a standard DBF (dBase III) format. The file can be opened in Microsoft Access, but it should not be modified without consulting the Forsk customer support. For general information, the format of DBF files in any Xbase language is as follows: Notations used in the following tables: FS = FlagShip; D3 = dBaseIII+; Fb = FoxBase; D4 = dBaseIV; Fp = FoxPro; D5 = dBaseV; CL = Clipper
DBF Structure Byte
Description
0...n
DBF header (see next part for size, byte 8)
n+1
1st record of fixed length (see next parts); 2nd record (see next part for size, byte10) …; last record
last
optional: 0x1a (eof byte)
Remarks
If .dbf is not empty
DBF Header The DBF header size is variable and depends on the field count.
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10 digits repres. the start block posit. in .dbt file, or 10 spaces if no entry in memo
all
V 10
Variable
Variable, bin/asc data in .dbv 4bytes bin= start pos in memo 4bytes bin= block size 1byte = subtype 1byte = reserved (0x1a) 10 spaces if no entry in .dbv
FS
P 10
Picture
binary data in .ftp structure like M
Fp
B 10
Binary
binary data in .dbt structure like M
D5
G 10
General
OLE objects structure like M
D5, Fp
22
short int
binary int max +/- 32767
FS
44
long int
binary int max +/- 2147483647
FS
88
double
binary signed double IEEE
FS
L1
Logical
M 10
Each DBF record (fixed length): Byte
Size
Description
Applies to
0
1
deleted flag "*" or not deleted " "
All
1…n
1…
x-times contents of fields, fixed length, unterminated. For n, see (2) byte 10…11
All
9.7.2 Pathloss.dbf File Contents The DBF file provides information that is needed to check validity of each path loss matrix. Field
Type
Description
TX_NAME
Text
Name of the transmitter
FILE_NAME
Text
Name (and optionally, path) of .los file
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Field
Type
MODEL_NAME
Text
Name of propagation model used to calculate path loss
MODEL_SIG
Text
Signature (identity number) of model used in calculations. You may check it in the propagation model properties (General tab). The Model_SIG is used for the purpose of validity. A unique Model_SIG is assigned to each propagation model. When model parameters are modified, the associated model ID changes. This enables Atoll to detect path loss matrix invalidity. In the same way, two identical propagation models in different projects do not have the same model IDa.
ULXMAP
Float
X-coordinate of the top-left corner of the path loss matrix upper-left pixel
ULYMAP
Float
Y-coordinate of the top-left corner of the path loss matrix upper-left pixel
RESOLUTION
Float
Resolution of path loss matrix in metre
NROWS
Float
Number of rows in path loss matrix
b. c.
Description
NCOLS
Float
Number of columns in path loss matrix
FREQUENCY
Float
Frequency band
TILT
Float
Transmitter antenna mechanical tilt
AZIMUTH
Float
Transmitter antenna azimuth
TX_HEIGHT
Float
Transmitter height in metre
TX_POSX
Float
X-coordinate of the transmitter
TX_POSY
Float
Y-coordinate of the transmitter
ALTITUDE
Float
Ground height above sea level at the transmitter in metre
RX_HEIGHT
Float
Receiver height in metre
ANTENNA_SI
Float
Logical number referring to antenna pattern. Antennas with the same pattern will have the same number.
MAX_LOS
Float
Maximum path loss stated in 1/16 dB. This information is used, when no calculation radius is set, to check the matrix validity.
CAREA_XMIN
Float
Lowest x-coordinate of centre pixel located on the calculation radiusb
CAREA_XMAX
Float
Highest x-coordinate of centre pixel located on the calculation radius
CAREA_YMIN
Float
Lowest y-coordinate of centre pixel located on the calculation radius
CAREA_YMAX
Float
Highest y-coordinate of centre pixel located on the calculation radius
WAREA_XMIN
Float
Lowest x-coordinate of centre pixel located in the computation zonec
WAREA_XMAX
Float
Highest x-coordinate of centre pixel located in the computation zone
WAREA_YMIN
Float
Lowest y-coordinate of centre pixel located in the computation zone
WAREA_YMAX
Float
Highest y-coordinate of centre pixel located in the computation zone
LOCKED
Boolean
Locking status 0: path loss matrix is not locked 1: path loss matrix is locked.
Boolean
Atoll indicates if losses due to the antenna pattern are taken into account in the path loss matrix. 0: antenna losses not taken into account 1: antenna losses included
In order to benefit from the calculation sharing feature, users must retrieve the propagation models from the same central database. This can be done using the Open from database command for a new document or the Refresh command for an existing one. Otherwise, Atoll generates different model_ID (even if same parameters are applied on the same kind of model) and calculation sharing become unavailable due to inconsistency. These coordinates enable Atoll to determine the area of calculation for each transmitter. These coordinates enable Atoll to determine the rectangle including the computation zone.
9.7.3 LOS File Format The LOS (path loss results) files are binary files with a standard row-column structure. Data are stored starting from the southwest to the northeast corner of the area. The file contains 16-bit signed integer values in the range [-32768; +32767] with a 1/16 dB precision. "No data" values are represented by +32767.
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9.8 Path Loss Tuning File Format Atoll can tune path losses calculated by propagation models using CW measurements or drive test Data. Path losses are tuned by merging measurement data with propagation results on pixels corresponding to the measurement points and the pixels in the vicinity. Path losses surrounding the measurement points are smoothed for homogeneity. Measuremment paths that are used for path loss tuning are stored as a catalogue in a folder containing a pathloss.dbf file and one PTS (path loss tuning) file per transmitter. A tuning file can contain several measurement paths. For more information on the path loss tuning algorithm, see the Technical Reference Guide.
9.8.1 Pathloss.dbf File Format See "Pathloss.dbf File Format" on page 117.
9.8.2 Pathloss.dbf File Contents The DBF file provides information about the measured transmitters involved in the tuning. Field
Type
Description
TX_NAME
Text
Name of the transmitter
FILE_NAME
Text
Name (and optionally, path) of .pts file
AREA_XMIN
Float
Not used
AREA_XMAX
Float
Not used
AREA_YMIN
Float
Not used
AREA_YMAX
Float
Not used
9.8.3 PTS File Format The PTS (path loss tuning) files contain a header and the list of measurement points. Header: • • • • • • • • • • • • •
4 bytes: version 4 bytes: flag (can be used to manage flags like active flag) 50 bytes: GUID 4 bytes: number of points 255 bytes: original measurement name (with prefix "Num" for drive test data and "CW" for CW measurements) 256 bytes: comments 4 bytes: X_RADIUS 4 bytes: Y_RADIUS 4 bytes: gain = measurement gain - losses 4 bytes: global error 4 bytes: rx height 4 bytes: frequency 8 bytes: tx Position
List of measurement points: • • • •
4 bytes: X 4 bytes: Y 4 bytes: measurement value 4 bytes: incidence angle.
9.9 Interference Matrix File Formats Interference matrices are used by GSM, LTE, and WiMAX AFPs (automatic frequency planning tools). Interference matrices can be imported and exported using the following formats: • •
Interference matrix files must contain interference probability values between 0 and 1, and not in precentage (between 0 and 100%). When interference matrix files are imported, Atoll does not check their validity and imports interference probability values for loaded transmitters only.
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In the following format descriptions and samples, lines starting with the "#" are considered as comments.
In GSM interference matrices: •
• •
The interferer TRX type is not specified and is always considered to be BCCH. Subcells have different powers defined as offsets with respect to the BCCH. For subcells other than the BCCH, if the power offset of a subcell is X dB, then its interference histogram will be shifted by X dB with respect to the BCCH interference histogram. If no power offset is defined on the interfered TRX type, it is possible to set "All". For each interfered subcell-interferer subcell pair, Atoll saves probabilities for several C/I values (6 to 24 values), including five fixed ones: –9, 1, 8, 14, and 22 dB. Between two fixed C/I value, there can be up to three additional values (this number depends on the probability variation between the fixed values). The C/I values have 0.5 dB accuracy and probability values are calculated and stored with an accuracy of 0.002 for probabilities between 1 and 0.05, and with an accuracy of 0.0001 for probabilities lower than 0.05.
9.9.1 CLC Format (One Value per Line) The CLC format uses wo ASCII text files: a CLC file and a DCT file. Interference matrices are imported by selecting the CLC file to import. Atoll looks for the associated DCT file in the same directory and uses it to decode transmitter identifiers. If no DCT file is available, Atoll assumes that the transmitter identifiers are the transmitter names, and the columns 1 and 2 of the CLC file must contain the names of the interfered and interfering transmitters instead of their identification numbers.
9.9.1.1 CLC File Format The CLC file consists of two parts. The first part is a header used for format identification. It must start with and contain the following lines: # Calculation Results Data File. # Version 1.1, Tab separated format. Commented lines start with #. The second part details interference histogram of each interfered subcell-interfering subcell pair. The lines after the header are considered as comments if they start with "#". If not, they must have the following format: The 5 tab-separated columns are defined in the table below: Column
Name
Description
Column1
Interfered transmitter
Identification number of the interfered transmitter. If the column is empty, its value is identical to the one of the line above.
Column2
Interfering transmitter
Identification number of the interferer transmitter. If the column is null, its value is identical to the one of the line above.
Column3
Interfered TRX type
Interfered subcell. If the column is null, its value is identical to the one of the line above. In order to save storage, all subcells with no power offset are not duplicated (e.g. BCCH, TCH).
Column4
C/I threshold
C/I value. This column cannot be null.
Column5
Probability C/I > Threshold
Probability to have C/I the value specified in column 4 (C/I threshold). This field must not be empty.
The columns 1, 2, and 3 must be defined only in the first line of each histogram. Sample # Calculation Results Data File. # Version 1.1, # Remark:
Tab separated format. Commented lines start with #.
C/I results do not incorporate power offset values.
##------------#------------#------------#-----------#------------------# # # Warning, The parameter settings of this header can be wrong if # the "export" is performed following an "import". They # are correct when the "export" follows a "calculate". # # Service Zone Type is "Best signal level of the highest priority HCS layer". # Margin is 5. # Cell edge coverage probability 75%. # Traffic spreading was Uniform ##---------------------------------------------------------------------# 1
2
TCH_INNER
8 9
1
a.
BCCH,TCHa
2
1 0.944
10
0.904
11
0.892
14
0.844
15
0.832
16
0.812
17
0.752
22
0.316
25
0.292
8
1
9
0.944
10
.904
13
0.872
14
0.84
17
0.772
If the TCH and BCCH histograms are the same, they are not repeated. A single record indicates that the histograms belong to TCH and BCCH both.
9.9.1.2 DCT File Format The .dct file is divided into two parts. The first part is a header used for format identification. It must start with and contain the following lines: # Calculation Results Dictionary File. # Version 1.1, Tab separated format. Commented lines start with #. The second part provides information about transmitters taken into account in AFP. The lines after the header are considered as comments if they start with "#". If not, they must have the following format: Column
Name
Type
Description
Column1
Transmitter name
Text
Name of the transmitter
Column2
Transmitter Identifier
Integer
Identification number of the transmitter
Column3
BCCH during calculation
Integer
BCCH used in calculations
Column4
BSIC during calculation
Integer
BSIC used in calculations
Column5
% of vic’ coverage
Float
Percentage of overlap of the victim service area
Column6
% of int’ coverage
Float
Percentage of overlap of the interferer service area
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The last four columns describe the interference matrix scope. One transmitter per line is described separated with a tab character. Sample # Calculation Results Dictionary File. # Version 2.1,
Tab separated format. Commented lines start with #.
# Fields are: ##-----------#-----------#-----------#-----------#---------#---------# #|Transmitter|Transmitter|BCCH during|BSIC during|% of vic'|% of int'| #|Name
##-----------#-----------#-----------#-----------#---------#---------# # # Warning, The parameter settings of this header can be wrong if # the "export" is performed following an "import". They # are correct when the "export" follows a "calculate". # # Service Zone Type is "Best signal level per HCS layer". # Margin is 5. # Cell edge coverage probability is 75%. # Traffic spreading was Uniform (percentage of interfered area) ##---------------------------# Site0_0
1
-1
-1
100
100
Site0_1
2
-1
-1
100
100
Site0_2
3
-1
-1
100
100
Site1_0
4
-1
-1
100
100
Site1_1
5
-1
-1
100
100
Site1_2
6
-1
-1
100
100
Site2_0
7
-1
-1
100
100
Site2_1
8
-1
-1
100
100
9.9.2 IM0 Format (One Histogram per Line) This file contains one histogram per line for each interfered/interfering subcell pair. The histogram is a list of C/I values with associated probabilities. The .im0 file consists of two parts. The first part is a header used for format identification. It must start with and contain the following lines: # Calculation Results Data File. # Version 1.1, Tab separated format. Commented lines start with #. The second part details interference histogram of each interfered subcell-interferer subcell pair. The lines after the header are considered as comments if they start with "#". If not, they must have the following format: The 4 tab-separated columns are defined in the table below: Column
124
Name
Description
Column1
Interfered transmitter
Name of the interfered transmitter.
Column2
Interfering transmitter
Name of the interferer transmitter.
Column3
Interfered TRX type
Interfered subcell. In order to save storage, all subcells with no power offset are not duplicated (e.g. BCCH, TCH).
Column4
C/I probability
C/I value and the probability associated to this value separated by a space character. This entry cannot be null.
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Sample # Calculation Results Data File. # Version 1.1, Tab separated format. Commented lines start with #. # Remark:
C/I results do not incorporate power offset values.
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------# # Warning, The parameter settings of this header can be wrong if # the "export" is performed following an "import". They # are correct when the "export" follows a "calculate". # # Service Zone Type is "Best signal level of the highest priority HCS layer". # Margin is 5. # Cell edge coverage probability 75%. # Traffic spreading was Uniform ##---------------------------------------------------------------------# # Site0_2
9.9.3 IM1 Format (One Value per Line, TX Name Repeated) This file contains one C/I threshold and probability pair value per line for each interfered/interfering subcell pair. The histogram is a list of C/I values with associated probabilities. The .im1 file consists of two parts. The first part is a header used for format identification. It must start with and contain the following lines: # Calculation Results Data File. # Version 1.1, Tab separated format. Commented lines start with #. The second part details interference histogram of each interfered subcell-interferer subcell pair. The lines after the header are considered as comments if they start with "#". If not, they must have the following format: The 5 tab-separated columns are defined in the table below: Column
Name
Description
Column1
Interfered transmitter
Name of the interfered transmitter.
Column2
Interfering transmitter
Name of the interferer transmitter.
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#-----------------------------------------------------------------------# # Warning, The parameter settings of this header can be wrong if # the "export" is performed following an "import". They # are correct when the "export" follows a "calculate". # # Service Zone Type is "Best signal level of the highest priority HCS layer". # Margin is 5. # Cell edge coverage probability 75%. # Traffic spreading was Uniform ##---------------------------------------------------------------------# Site0_2
Site0_1
BCCH,TCH
-10
1
Site0_2
Site0_1
BCCH,TCH
-9
0.996
Site0_2
Site0_1
BCCH,TCH
-6
0.976
Site0_2
Site0_1
BCCH,TCH
-4
0.964
Site0_2
Site0_1
BCCH,TCH
-1
0.936
Site0_2
Site0_1
BCCH,TCH
0
0.932
Site0_2
Site0_1
BCCH,TCH
1
0.924
Site0_2
Site0_1
BCCH,TCH
4
0.896
Site0_2
Site0_1
BCCH,TCH
7
0.864
Site0_2
Site0_1
BCCH,TCH
8
0.848
Site0_2
Site0_1
BCCH,TCH
9
0.832
Site0_2
Site0_1
BCCH,TCH
10
0.824
...
9.9.4 IM2 Format (Co- and Adjacent-channel Probabilities) IM2 files contain co-channel and adjacent-channel interference probabilities for each interfered transmitter – interfering transmitter pair. In GSM, there is only one set of values for all the subcells of the interfered transmitter. Each line must have the following format: Where the separator () can either be a tab or a semicolon. The four columns are defined in the table below:
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Column
Name
Description
Column1
Interfered transmitter
Name of the interfered transmitter
Column2
Interfering transmitter
Name of the interferer transmitter
Column3
Co-channel probability
Co-channel interference probability
Column4
Adjacent-channel probability
Adjacent channel interference probability
Sample # Calculation Results Data File. # Version 1.1, Tab separated format. Commented lines start with #. # Remark:
C/I results do not incorporate power offset values.
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------# # Warning, The parameter settings of this header can be wrong if # the "export" is performed following an "import". They # are correct when the "export" follows a "calculate". # # Service Zone Type is "Best signal level of the highest priority HCS layer". # Margin is 5. # Cell edge coverage probability 75%. # Traffic spreading was Uniform ##---------------------------------------------------------------------# Site0_2
Site0_1
0.226667
0.024
Site0_2
Site0_3
0.27
0.024
Site0_3
Site0_1
0.276
0.02
Site0_3
Site0_2
0.226
0.028
The columns in the sample above are separated with a tab. These columns can also be separated with a semilcolon: Site0_2;Site0_1;0.226667;0.024 Site0_2;Site0_3;0.27;0.024 Site0_3;Site0_1;0.276;0.02 Site0_3;Site0_2;0.226;0.028
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10 Administration and Usage Recommendations This chapter lists various technical recommendations for optimising your work with Atoll.
10.1 Geographic Data Location of the Geographic Data • • •
In multi-user environments, it is recommended to place all the geographic data on a file server accessible to all the users. This approach avoids the need to replicate the geographic data on all the workstations. Geographic data should either be located on each server or accessible through a fast network connection, e.g., 1 Gbps. You can restrict access to the geographic data locations by assigning read/write access rights to administrators and read-only rights to end-users.
Link or Embed • •
Only embed geographic data in ATL files if you wish to make a portable document. In all other cases, it is recommended to link geographic data files to the Atoll documents. It is recommended to set the paths to linked geographic data files using the Universal Naming Convention (UNC). Following the UNC, an absolute path, such as "C:\Program Files\Forsk\Geo Data\...", is represented as "\\Computer\C\Program Files\Forsk\Geo Data\...", where "Computer" is the computer name, and "C" is the share name of disk C. Example: Absolute Path
C:\Program Files\Forsk\Geo Data\...
Relative Path
\Program Files\Forsk\Geo Data\...
UNC Path
\\Computer\C\Program Files\Forsk\Geo Data\...
If you define paths to geographic data files using the UNC, Atoll will be able to keep track of the linked files even if the Atoll document is moved to another computer. Size of Tiles •
•
Some network planning tools require geographic data to be available in small tiles in order to work more efficiently. For a country-wide project, this may lead to hundreds of files describing the geographic data. Atoll is designed to optimise memory consumption, which enables it to perform efficiently with regional tiles (1 tile/file per region). In Atoll, Merging small tiles to build a regional tile can improve performance greatly. To note as well: • • •
Recommended file size: 100 to 200 MB Erdas Imagine Pyramids files can be bigger. ECW files can be of any size (no limitations).
Recommended Formats •
In order to improve performance, it is recommended to use uncompressed DTM and clutter files, for example, BIL files. Using compressed geographic data files, for example, compressed TIF or Erdas Imagine, can cause performance reduction due to decompression of these files in real time. If you are using compressed geographic data files, it is strongly recommended to: • •
•
Either, hide the status bar that displays geographic data information in real time. You can hide the status bar from the View menu. Or, disable the display of some of the information contained in the status bar, such as altitude, clutter class, and clutter height using an option in the Atoll.ini file, see "Hiding Information Displayed in the Status Bar" on page 179.
The following table shows the recommended file formats for different geographic data: Geographic data type
Recommended file format
Scanned maps
ECW
Vectors
SHP
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10.2 Path Loss Matrices Shared Path Loss Matrices •
•
Shared path loss matrices should be accessible through a fast network connection, e.g., 1 Gbps. These results are accessed by Atoll during calculations, and should be available to the users through a fast network connection, i.e., 30 Mbps at least per user. You can restrict access to the shared path loss matrices folder by assigning read/write access rights to administrators and read-only rights to end-users.
Private Path Loss Matrices •
Atoll synchronises the private path loss matrices with the shared path loss matrices. If private path loss matrices are invalid, and the corresponding shared path loss matrices are valid, Atoll deletes the invalid private path loss matrices and uses the shared ones. You can make Atoll verify and remove private path loss matrices, valid or invalid, whose corresponding shared path loss matrices are valid. This can be useful for disk space management. For more information, see "Synchronising Private and Shared Path Loss Matrices" on page 177.
Link or Embed •
Only embed path loss matrices in ATL files if you wish to make a portable document. In all other cases, it is recommended to link path loss matrices to the Atoll documents. Externalising path loss matrices to shared or private path loss folders will keep the ATL file size reasonable, which will result in less fragmentation. Externalising path loss matrices does not reduce the performance of display and calculations in Atoll.
•
It is recommended to set the paths to the private and shared path loss matrices folders using the Universal Naming Convention (UNC). Following the UNC, an absolute path, such as "C:\Program Files\Forsk\PathLosses\...", is represented as "\\Computer\C\Program Files\Forsk\PathLosses\...", where "Computer" is the computer name, and "C" is the share name of disk C. Example: Absolute Path
C:\Program Files\Forsk\PathLosses\...
Relative Path
\Program Files\Forsk\PathLosses\...
UNC Path
\\Computer\C\Program Files\Forsk\PathLosses\...
If you define paths to the private and shared path loss matrices folders using the UNC, Atoll will be able to keep track of the linked files even if the Atoll document is moved to another computer.
10.3 Databases Database Upgrade • • •
Create backups of the database before upgrading. It is recommended to define a rule for making backups of the database at regular intervals. Do not skip a major Atoll version. For example, if you are currently using Atoll 2.7.x, you should first upgrade the database to Atoll 2.8.x before upgrading to Atoll 3.1.x. Upgrading your database will be simpler if you do not skip a major version. If you skip or have skipped an intermediate major version, you must upgrade your database twice in order to make it compatible with the new version.
Tables and Fields • •
Table and field names are case sensitive. Table and field names should be not more than 20 characters long. Oracle databases allow a maximum length of 30 characters for field and table names. However, for use in Atoll, you must not create tables and fields with names longer than 20 characters. This is because Atoll adds some characters to the table and field names for certain operations: creating associated triggers, creating project databases, etc. Limiting the length of table and field names to 20 characters will help avoid database connection and consistency problems.
• • •
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Table and field names should only use alphanumeric characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9). Table and field names must not start with a numeric character (0-9). Table and field names must not contain an SQL or RDBMS-specific keyword, such as ORDER, DATE, etc.
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• • •
• •
Table and field names must not contain spaces or special characters, such as periods (.), exclamation marks (!), interrogation marks (?), parentheses (()), brackets ({}), square brackets ([]), etc. Boolean fields, system or user-defined, should always have default values assigned. The CustomFields table enables you to define default values and choice lists for any field in any table in Atoll, including user-defined fields that you add to the Atoll tables. The values defined in this table have priority over the internal predefined default values. If you define floating point default values, make sure that all the users have the same decimal separator. If you wish to add custom fields in the Atoll document, you should first add the field in the database, and then update your Atoll document from the database. When setting up your database for the first time, try to anticipate user requirements in terms of custom fields in Atoll tables. Some requirements of the different user groups may be satisfied if a few general-purpose user-defined fields are added in Atoll tables when setting up the database. For example, if you add three user-defined fields (one of type integer, float, and text (limited size)) to the Sites and Transmitters tables, users will be able to use these for sorting, filtering, grouping, or other purposes. This approach may help the database function a long time before users require the addition of other custom fields.
• •
•
To improver performance, if your projects allow it, reduce the size of the fields corresponding to the sites and transmitters’ names. To improver performance, unless absolutely necessary, do not add user-defined fields of Text type. Rather, use numeric field types, which allow sorting and other functions. If you must add Text fields, allocate them the appropriate size that would suffice. For example, a 255-character long Text type field would, for the most part, occupy disk space for no purpose. To improver performance, you should avoid adding custom fields to the neighbour management tables.
10.4 Calculation Server Computation Server Stability and Resource Management In certain conditions, as described below, Atoll users might experience a decrease in server performance and stability in a multi-user Citrix environment. The principal difference observed might be the inability to run multiple Atoll sessions on the server without getting error messages, general application failures, or server crashes. Such problems may occur when the number of Atoll sessions on the server, carrying out calculations, increases to more than four. Causes of Instability and Loss of Performance This general instability and low performance of the servers is due to: • • •
Insufficient memory resources: globally and per process (Atoll session) Insufficient CPU resources Network congestion
Atoll can process four simultaneous path loss matrices calculations, which means high CPU and RAM resource consumption, and as path loss calculations share the amount of memory allocated to the Atoll session, the total memory requirement may exceed the Microsoft Windows’ (32-bit editions) limit of 2 GB per process. This is especially the case with large Atoll documents and propagation models that require considerable memory. Troubleshooting and Solution As the cause of this problem is resource saturation on the server, resource consumption should be controlled in order to avoid memory and CPU overloading as follows: •
To reduce the impact of a large number of simultaneous path loss calculations, a Distributed Calculation Server should be set up. Using the Distributed Calculation Server, path loss calculations can be performed outside Atoll. Using the Distribution Calculation Server has the following advantages: • Path loss calculations are limited to four parallel instances regardless of the number of Atoll sessions running on the server. This notably improves the memory and CPU consumption. • A queuing system, integrated in the Distributed Calculation Server, manages the calculation requests from different Atoll sessions. • A failover mechanism automatically switches and hands over the path loss calculations back to Atoll in case a problem occurs. • Path loss calculations are carried out by a separate process (AtollSvr), which has its own memory allocation apart from Atoll, i.e., the amount of memory needed for calculations does not impacts the Atoll memory allocation.
This set up can introduce considerable improvements in both the number of Atoll sessions per server and the calculations. A server with four processors (eight threads with hyper-threading) can accommodate four simultaneous path loss calculations and use the other four threads for Atoll sessions. Atoll’s interface will also be more efficient and the overall processing time for various tasks will be improved.
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In order to prevent users from deactivating the use of the Distributed Calculation Server, and hence bypassing the resource control procedure established above, the Atoll.ini file should be set made read-only for end-users. Apart from the above setup, you can also make some other system improvements: •
To avoid error messages caused by requesting a large number of files over the network, the following Microsoft Windows registry parameter can be modified in order to dedicate more resources to network read/write operations: IRQSTACKSIZE should be set to 30 instead of 11, for example.
•
•
To avoid ‘out of memory’ problems, the Pagefile size should be increased so that the server does not run out of global memory when supporting more than 10 Atoll sessions simultaneously. This is different from the 2 GB per process limit. Virtual memory can be increased from 8 GB to 16 GB, for example. For 32-bit Windows operating systems, you can also increase the default Windows memory allocation limit from 2 GB to 3 GB as explained in "Process Memory" on page 132.
10.5 Atoll Administration Files There is no specific order in which configuration and initialisation files should be created or installed on Atoll workstations and servers. It is sufficient to have these files created and placed in the right locations before running Atoll to have the predefined configuration of all workstations and servers. If you have already configured these files for one server, and you are setting up another server, you can copy these files to their respective locations on the new server to have the exact configuration and set-up as the first. If you do not copy these files, or create them, you will not have the same configuration of the new server, but apart from that you will be able to work with Atoll normally. These files are optional, not obligatory. Initialisation File (INI) • •
It is highly recommended that the Atoll initialisation file be created and modified only by the administrator. If you are using Windows 2000 Server, state the actual number of processors in the INI file.
User Configuration File (CFG) • • •
Use Atoll to create these files and avoid modifying these files manually as human errors can create problems. Uncheck image visibility to avoid loading unnecessary data in the memory. You can set up your configuration files in the following manner: • •
•
A common configuration file that points to the geographic data, macros, and other common parameters in your Atoll documents. Separate configuration files created for your 2G and 3G projects, which would store their respective coverage prediction studies parameters, traffic information, neighbour allocation parameters, and other technologyspecific parameters. Separate configuration files based on, and for, different groups of users. These groups of users may be, for example, groups of users working on different regions, groups of users working on different technologies, groups of users focusing on certain operations (i.e., performing certain types of coverage predictions, performing the AFP, etc.).
Custom Predictions File •
Coverage prediction studies can easily be duplicated within Atoll. Before creating study templates, and the XML studies file, make sure that this study template is aimed at serving a number of users. This means, avoid creating study templates unless these will be needed for a long time by a number of users. You can use the configuration files to store your created coverage prediction studies locally. And, you can also use the study duplicate feature to create copies of existing coverage prediction studies.
10.6 Process Memory 32-bit Operating Systems Atoll can support 3 GB address space on a properly configured 32-bit system. For more information, please refer to the following URL: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/server/PAE/PAEmem.mspx (/3GB section in “Memory Support and Windows Operating Systems”). The following link provides information on how you can setup your Windows 2003 Server systems to activate the 3 GB switch at startup: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124810.aspx.
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64-Bit Operating Systems The 64-bit editions of Microsoft Windows provide 4 GB of memory per process.
10.7 Printing You should place different layers of geographic and radio data in a definite order when printing a project or a section of the project. The following order should be followed: 1. Visible objects of the Data tab All the visible objects of the Data tab are displayed above those in the Geo tab. However, it is strongly recommended to place vector layers on the top of coverage prediction plots. You can do this by transferring these vector layers to the Data tab using the context menu. For performance reasons, it is advised to place vector layers on top of raster layers before printing a project. Sites and Transmitters must be on the very top, above all other layers. You should place sites and sectors on the top, then vector layers, and then raster layers. 2. Unidimensional vectors (points) 3. Open polygonal vectors (lines, i.e., roads and other linear items, etc.) 4. Closed polygonal vectors (surfaces, i.e., zones and areas, etc.) 5. Multi-format maps (vector or raster maps, i.e., population, rain, generic maps, traffic, etc.) 6. Transparent raster maps (clutter class maps, etc.) 7. Non-transparent maps (images, DTM, clutter height maps, etc.)
10.8 Coverage Prediction Calculations •
•
If you do not want Atoll to calculate the shadowing margin during a coverage prediction, it is advised to clear the Shadowing taken into account check box. This approach is more efficient in terms of performance than selecting this option and setting the Cell edge coverage probability to 50%. To improve memory consumption and optimise the calculation times, you should set the display resolutions of coverage predictions according to the precision required. The following table lists the levels of precision that are usually sufficient: Size of the coverage prediction
Display resolution
City Center
5m
City
20 m
County
50 m
State
100 m
Country
According to the size
10.9 CW Measurements and Drive Test Data •
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It is recommended to use Fast Display in order to increase display speed. This option is available in the Display tab of the Properties dialogues for CW Measurements and Drive Test Data folders. Although this approach only displays measurement points as small squares, it may have a significant impact on performance depending on the number of measurement points in the Atoll document. When performing a CW measurements drive test campaign, please follow the recommended procedure described in the Measurements and Model Calibration Guide.
10.10 Antenna Patterns and Import •
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Antenna names used in some tools, such as NetAct, can be different from those used in their corresponding antenna files. To solve this issue, you can create a new file, named "Index", containing the list of antenna names, which would in fact be the pattern (antenna file) names. You should place this file at the same location as the antenna patterns (files). This will replace the antenna names with the new antenna names. Some Kathrein antenna pattern files might have names different from the antenna pattern names present inside the file. You will have to replace the name of the pattern inside the file by the name of the pattern file itself, in order to import these antennas correctly.
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A Planet Index file contains the path to and the name of each antenna file available. Creating such an Index file when there are hundreds of antenna patterns available can be a difficult task. You can easily create the index file from the Microsoft Windows command prompt. You can open the Command Prompt window by selecting Start > Run, entering "cmd" and pressing ENTER. In the Command Prompt window, navigate to the directory containing the antenna pattern files, enter the following command and press ENTER: dir /b > Index This will create a file called "Index" in the same directory as the antenna patter files containing a list of all the antenna pattern file names, with one name per line. The file will also contain a line with its own name, so, before importing this file into Atoll, you should use a text editor to remove the line containing the file name "Index."
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The electrical tilt, which can be defined in the antenna properties dialogues in Atoll, is an additional electrical downtilt. It might be redundant to define an additional electrical downtilt for antennas whose patterns already include electrical tilt. Users should verify whether the antenna patterns of the antennas in their projects, do not already include the effect of an electrical tilt.
10.11 Traffic Maps • • •
User profile environment-based traffic maps should only be used for a precision on traffic that is of the same level as the statistical clutter available in a project. For higher precision on traffic data, you should use sector traffic maps or user density traffic maps. User density traffic maps provide you with a means to define a density for each set of service, terminal type, and mobility type. Sector traffic maps are best suited for traffic data issued by the OMC.
10.12 Atoll API Correct functioning of Atoll when using Atoll through the API is guaranteed during interactive user sessions only. Atoll is an application that requires creating tool bars, creating menus, reading user profile options from the Windows’ registry, accessing printers, etc., even when it is accessed through the API. The same is true for add-ins working with Atoll. Even though it is possible to load and use Atoll when there is no user session open on a computer, its correct functioning is not guaranteed. Unexpected errors can occur. Particularly, creating objects through CreateObject or CoCreateInstance may fail. Therefore, the correct functioning of Atoll requires an open user session on the computer.
10.13 Performance and Memory Memory Refresh •
You can avoid memory fragmentation while working with Atoll documents by saving the Atoll document from time to time, closing and restarting Atoll, and reopening the document. This advice is applicable to any application running under Microsoft Windows because many common DLL files are accessed by applications, and unloading and reloading these DLL files refreshes the memory allocation.
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If you are working in a Citrix MetaFrame environment, you should restart your Citrix server every week or fortnight. The exact time should be determined by the administrator depending on the state of the network (LAN). In certain cases, it might be more appropriate to start working on a completely fresh ATL file. If you have been working on your existing ATL file for a long time, it might become unnecessarily large and might contain some useless remains from your earlier operations, e.g., traces of records that no longer exist in the database, etc. You can completely refresh your project by following these steps: a. Open the existing ATL file in Atoll that you want to replace. b. Create a CFG file from your existing ATL file with all the required information, e.g., geographic data set, coverage prediction parameters, neighbour allocation parameters, etc. For more information, refer to "Configuration Files" on page 141. c. Close the old ATL file. d. Create a new ATL from the database to create a fresh ATL file. e. Import the CFG file in the new ATL file. You now have a clean ATL file to work with, which has all the same information as the old ATL file, and takes up less space on the hard disk, has less fragmented data, and improved performance.
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Memory Allocation •
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If you have to open several large ATL files simultaneously on the same computer, it is better to open each in a separate Atoll session rather than to open them all in the same Atoll window. Each Atoll session on the same computer has its own memory space allocated by the operating system. Each computer consumes a single licence token independent of the number of Atoll sessions opened simultaneously. For 32-bit Windows operating systems, you can also increase the default Windows memory allocation limit from 2 GB to 3 GB as explained in "Process Memory" on page 132.
File Size •
Coverage predictions calculated over large areas require more memory. If you are working on an Atoll document covering a large area, with coverage predictions calculated over the entire network, this document will require more memory for loading all the coverage predictions. You can reduce memory consumption by making copies of your Atoll document, and keeping a few coverage predictions in each copy. These ATL files will be faster to load and work with compared to a single ATL file with all the coverage predictions. Large coverage predictions can take up a considerable amount of memory even if they are not displayed on the map.
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Externalise DTM, clutter, path loss matrices, and any other data that can be externalised, so that the ATL file size does not become unnecessarily large.
Path Loss Calculation •
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Before starting path loss calculation, verify that the calculation radii and resolutions assigned to the different types of transmitters are consistent. For example, calculating path loss matrices of picocells over large calculation radii would only waste memory and disk space. For calculating path loss matrices over large areas, you should use the dual resolution feature in Atoll. Define short calculation radii and fine resolutions for the main path loss matrices, and large calculation radii and low resolutions for extended path loss matrices. This approach decreases the calculation time significantly compared to calculating just one matrix per transmitter using a fine resolution. The main path loss matrices should be calculated using the same resolution as the resolution of the geographic data available. The extended path loss matrices can be calculated using a lower resolution, e.g., twice the resolution of the geographic data.
Regionalisation •
Use database regionalisation or site lists if you are working on smaller parts of a large network. Atoll loads only the data necessary for your working area. If you load a large network, Atoll will load a lot of data that might not be necessary all the time, such as the neighbour relation data.
Performance and Memory Issues in Large GSM Projects Memory problems might be experienced in the C/I coverage prediction studies, interference matrices calculations, and the AFP while working on large GSM networks. Large network projects are more susceptible to these problems. If the network is large but homogeneous, these problems may only appear if the number of transmitters is over 15,000 or so. But, if there are large city centres involved, with each pixel having many overlapping path loss matrices, then this size limit might decrease to around 5,000 transmitters or so. Also, if the Atoll session has been open for a long time, memory problems may even appear while working on smaller networks. This is because the process memory space (memory space allocated to Atoll by the operating system) becomes fragmented. Following is a list of advice which you can follow in order to avoid such problems: •
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•
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Use regionalisation or site lists: If you load a large network, Atoll will be required to load a lot of data that might not be necessary all of the time. For example, in a typical large GSM network, you might have around 10,000 transmitter records, 20,000 subcell records, 50,000 TRX records, and up to 150,000 neighbour records. Externalise embedded interference matrices: You can store interference matrices listed in the Interference Matrices folder in external files. Atoll loads interference matrices from the external files to the memory only when needed. You will also reduce the ATL file size by externalising the interference matrices. Adapt calculation radii to the cell type and the EIRP: Before calculating path loss matrices, take care to correctly associate calculation radii and resolutions to different types of cells. If you calculate path loss matrices for all types of cells over a large calculation radius, it will unnecessarily burden the C/I and interference matrices computations. Properly configure the interference thresholds: These thresholds indicate the level after which an interferer can be ignored. The default value for this threshold (-130 dBm), defined in the Predictions tab of the Predictions folder’s Properties dialogue, means that the computations will take into account all the interferers. However, if you set it too high, you might lose important interference information. The proper value for this threshold depends on the Reception Thresholds and the C/I Thresholds defined in the Subcells table. The optimum value would be Min AllSubcells ( RT i – CIT i – M ) . Which means the minimum value of the factor RT i – CIT i – M computed for all
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subcells, i. Where, RTi is the reception threshold of the subcell i, CITi the C/I threshold of this subcell, and M is a safety margin. Since this interference threshold is used both in interference matrices calculation and in interference predictions, it is important to have at least a 3-dB margin for the interference energy aggregation in C/I studies. We recommend a safety margin of 5 dB, which can be reduced if any problem is encountered. •
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Do not define very high C/I quality thresholds (Default values: 12 dB for BCCH and 9 dB for TCH). If you want a certain TRX type to carry GPRS/EDGE traffic, you can add 1 or 2 dB to this value for that TRX type, and use the option of safety margin in the AFP module’s Cost tab. The 12 dB and 9 dB default values already include safety margins. If you increment these values too much, it will unnecessarily load the interference matrix generation and the AFP. Do not start an AFP session if the interference matrices report indicates problems: All the transmitters should have interferers and very few of them (not more than 20%) should have more than 70 interferers. If there are too many or too few entries in your interference matrices, the AFP plan will not be optimal. If the memory-critical task is interference matrices generation: You can generate interference matrices in a piecewise manner. This means that you can generate nation-wide interference matrices with low resolutions based on the percentage of interfered area (to improve computation time), with a cell edge coverage probability of 50% (which means no access to clutter for reading standard deviation values), and an interference threshold of -112 dBm. This will provide rough global interference matrices which can be locally improved. These interference matrices will be less memoryconsuming. Then, use polygon or site list filters to focus on each important location, and calculate local interference matrices with higher resolutions and reliabilities. Make sure that the computation zone in your project completely encompasses the filtering zones that you define.
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If the memory-critical task is the AFP session: Try to make the document lighter, e.g., remove coverage prediction studies, exit and restart Atoll, and try to generate interference matrices with fewer entries. If the memory-critical task is the traffic capture: You can use traffic load field of the Subcells table to provide traffic loads directly to the AFP, and possibly skip this step.
Performance and Memory Issues in UMTS/CDMA Simulations •
In order to optimise memory usage during simulations, you can set the "Information to retain" option to "Only the Average Simulation and Statistics". With this option Atoll uses much less memory because it only keeps limited information in memory during the simulation process. Simulation results are detailed enough to be used in generating coverage prediction studies.
Performance and Memory Issues in Co-planning Projects Co-planning with Atoll requires that both technology documents be open in the same Atoll window at the same time. However, loading, for example, a GSM and a UMTS document can cause memory saturation especially if the documents contain large, country-wide networks. To decrease the amount of memory used by Atoll in such cases, you can: • •
Load vector layers in main document only. Loading vectors in the linked document is not necessary and only consumes more memory. Avoid loading neighbours and custom fields which are not required. This can be performed by creating views in the database. For more information, see "Appendix 2: Setting Up Databases for Co-planning" on page 63.
10.14 Appendix: Memory Requirements This part gives some aspects of memory requirements (both RAM and hard disk space) for Atoll depending on the network to be planned. Atoll is capable of performing computations in pixel sizes different from those of the raster maps in a project. It is recommended to perform detailed planning with smaller pixel sizes in high density areas, and country-wide (or region-wide, depending on the size) coverage predictions and other calculations using larger pixel sizes. This approach will provide overall satisfactory results, and will considerably improve the disk space requirements, RAM allocation and calculation time. Please note that the figures mentioned in the following sections are approximate, and though actual figures may vary, their deviation from the approximate values will be negligible. These approximate values are computed through simplified formulas. These formulas do not consider all the input parameters, but only the input parameters that have a considerable impact on memory requirements.
10.14.1 Disk Space Requirements The amount of disk space required for data varies from project to project. It depends mainly on the size of the planning area, the pixel size, and the number of cells. In networks with only a few cells, the amount of disk space required is chiefly
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determined by the size of the planning area. In networks with a large number of sites, transmitters and cells, it is the number of these network entities that governs this requirement. Pixel size plays an equally important role in all cases. Network-Wide Input The file sizes for raster maps (DTM, clutter heights, clutter classes, traffic density or environments, images, etc.) does not depend on the number of cells, but only on the size of the planning area in pixels. The following information can provide you with an estimate of disk usage for different geographic data: • • • • •
Clutter class maps require 1 byte per pixel (2 bytes for Planet format). Background images require from 1 to 3 bytes per pixel. Traffic maps require 1 byte per pixel (2 bytes for Planet format). DTM or clutter height maps require 2 bytes per pixel. Population maps or other generic maps require from 1 to 4 bytes per pixel.
For one clutter map, one DTM map, one traffic map, and one background image, you may estimate 6 bytes per pixel of the input area. This data can be shared between different planning alternatives of the same network. If an embedded geographic data file is deleted from the project, Atoll automatically compresses the ATL file to avoid file fragmentation.
Cell-Specific Results For a project with a large number of cells, it is important to consider the disk space required by the propagation prediction results of each cell. Here, the cell calculation area and the calculation resolution are important factors. Cell-specific results require 2 bytes per pixel. For example, the propagation results for a sector with a calculation area of 1024 x 1024 pixels will require 2 MB disk space. If there are different ATL files for planning the same part of the network in different ways, each ATL file will require the same amount of disk space. The same rule applies to extended path loss matrices as well. If embedded path loss matrices are externalised, Atoll automatically compresses the ATL file to avoid file fragmentation.
The size of the planning area The pixel size The number of coverage predictions The types of coverage predictions
Coverage predictions may have a number of layers depending on the calculation criteria. There can be a single layer for the entire network or a layer per transmitter, sector, or subcell. The resulting size depends on the number of layers and the number of colours and thresholds. Therefore, Atoll coverage predictions may require between 1 bit and 2 bytes per pixel of the calculation area.
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Atoll can compress the coverage prediction results when saving a ATL file to avoid file fragmentation. You can consider 14 bytes per pixel as a rough estimate to determine the disk space required for each individual ATL file.
Temporary Disk Space Atoll requires some disk space to temporarily store intermediate results during calculations. A file is created in the system’s temporary directory whose size depends on the calculations. This file is described in the section on RAM requirements. Likewise, a temporary file is created when using the "Save As" command. These files are erased after the calculations or once the storage has finished.
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Other Disk Space Requirements Other objects in a ATL file that require disk space can easily be neglected in real-life scenarios since the required disk space depending on the size of the planning area and the number of transmitters is much higher. ATL files store database tables and calculation results. An empty ATL file requires around 500 KB. Each additional site requires between 1 and 2 KB, which is negligible compared to the size of the propagation results. Furthermore, the size of vector files is negligible compared to that of other geographic data, as their size is usually much smaller than the DTM, clutter height, and clutter class maps. When saving an ATL file, Atoll estimates the size of unused spaces in the file due to fragmentation. If the amount of unused spaces is more than half of the useful space, Atoll proposes compressing the file.
10.14.2 RAM Requirements Usually, 512 MB of RAM in a workstation is sufficient for all operations with Atoll, provided that there are no other applications being used in parallel that consume large amounts of memory. Starting Atoll without loading a project requires around 20 MB of RAM (as monitored with the Windows Task Manager). Loading a project with 500 sites, a few predictions, and some simulations may increase the consumed memory to around 50 to 100 MB. Monte Carlo Simulations UMTS Monte-Carlo simulations are calculations that consume large amounts of memory. The memory requirement of these calculations is a function of the following: • • • • • • • • • •
The number of sites involved The number of transmitters involved The number of cells involved The number of mobiles generated by the UMTS simulation The number of transmitters covering a pixel The number of services simulated The number of neighbours per cell The "Detailed Results" and "Limit Active Set to Neighbours" flags The number of links per mobile The number of channel elements per site
Most of these parameters have minor influences and the actual requirements are mostly governed by the number of cells and the number of mobiles generated. Assuming that there are three carriers used and the number of transmitters and mobiles is high enough so that the other input can be ignored, the required memory can be roughly approximated by: R = 14.0 × t + 3.25 × m
for normal simulations
R = 14.0 × t + 4.3 × m
using the "detailed results" option
with R: peak RAM requirement in KBytes t: number of transmitters affecting the computation zone m: number of mobiles generated by the UMTS simulation Example: To calculate for 500 sites (or 1500 transmitters) and 2400 mobiles, around 28 MB of RAM are required for a normal simulation and 30 MB if detailed results are to be stored as well. • •
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Please note that this is the peak requirement. Less memory will be required once the calculations are terminated. This approximation also considers effects due to the operating system, such as memory over-allocation due to fragmentation. It is a conservative approximation and in most cases the actual RAM requirement will be below these calculated figures. A more accurate estimation of the used and required memory for UMTS simulations is available in the Source Traffic tab of the new simulation group dialogue. To activate the memory estimation feature, you must add an option in the Atoll.ini file. For more information, see "Estimating Required and Used Memory Size for UMTS Simulations" on page 190.
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Coverage Predictions RAM required during coverage prediction calculations (network-wide raster result) is the same as the required additional disk space, i.e., between 1 bit and 2 bytes per pixel of the calculation area. Apart from this, temporary memory is required for calculations like "Coverage by transmitter" and "Coverage by signal level". For these, Atoll temporarily allocates an average of 4 bytes more per pixel (8 bytes, if the best server margin is not zero) of the calculation area. Example: The Paris region has a size of around 10 x 13 km. For a calculation resolution of 25 m, this equals 5.2 million pixels. If a coverage prediction calculates the signal strength of the UMTS pilot in less than 16 colours, it would require a memory of 4 bits per pixel, or a total of 2.6 MB. During the calculation, Atoll would also require 4 more bytes per pixel, which equals 20.8 MB more apart from the 2.6 MB. For large networks, to avoid loading the entire computation zone in memory, Atoll divides the coverage prediction computations into smaller tiles, and carries out the computations on them successively. This subdivision is invisible to the user.
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11 Configuration Files Configuration files can be used to store parameter and display settings. These files are optional, not required for working with Atoll, but are useful means for making work easier. This chapter describes the formats of these files in detail: •
User configuration files (UTF-8 encoded XML-format GEO or CFG files) A user configuration file containing only the geographic data settings can be saved with a GEO extension. A user configuration file containing the geographic data settings and other parameter settings can be saved with a CFG extension. User configuration files must be created using Atoll to ensure correct syntax and structure. It is possible to edit the contents of these files in an XML editor and make changes if required (for example, to update the paths to geographic data files). For more information on how to create and load user configuration files in Atoll, see the User Manual. These files may store: • • • • • • • • • •
Geographic data settings Filtering, focus, computation, printing, and geographic export zones Folder configurations List of coverage predictions in the Predictions folder and their settings Automatic neighbour allocation parameters Automatic frequency planning parameters (GSM GPRS EDGE documents) Automatic scrambling code allocation parameters (UMTS HSPA and TD-SCDMA documents) Automatic PN offset allocation parameters (CDMA2000 documents) Microwave link parameters Full paths to macro files • •
Projection and display coordinate systems are stored in the database, not in user configuration files. Simulation settings are not stored in user configuration files.
For more information on the contents of user configuration files, see "Contents of User Configuration Files" on page 142. A user configuration file may be automatically loaded when Atoll is run if: a. The file is identified in the command line parameter -Cfg "cfgfilename" (see "Atoll Command Line Parameters" on page 31 for more information), or b. The file is named "Atoll.cfg" and is located in the Atoll installation folder. This file will be ignored if a user configuration file is loaded through the command line parameter. •
Additional configuration files (UTF-8 encoded XML-format CFG files or plain text INI files) The following parameter settings can be stored in additional configuration files with a CFG extension: • • •
The following parameter settings can be stored in specific INI files: • •
CW measurement import configuration Drive test data import configuration
For more information on the contents of additional configuration files, see "Contents of Additional Configuration Files" on page 164. •
Custom predictions file (UTF-8 encoded XML files) This file contains the list and parameter settings of customised coverage predictions. By default, this file is named "Studies.xml" and is located in the Atoll installation folder. The custom predictions file must be created using Atoll to ensure correct syntax and structure. It is possible to edit the contents of this file in an XML editor and make changes if required. For more information on working with customised predictions in Atoll, see the User Manual. For more information on the contents of the custom predictions file, see "Contents of the Custom Predictions File" on page 168.
11.1 Contents of User Configuration Files The descriptions and examples provided below for each parameter set can help understand the format and function of the user configuration files. The following details are available: • • • • • • • • • •
"Geographic Data Set" on page 142 "Folder Configuration" on page 145 "Zones" on page 145 "Coverage Predictions" on page 152 "Automatic Neighbour Allocation Parameters" on page 154 "Automatic Frequency Planning Parameters" on page 156 "Automatic Scrambling Code Allocation Parameters" on page 157 "Automatic PN Offset Allocation Parameters" on page 158 "Microwave Radio Links Parameters" on page 160 "Macros" on page 163.
11.1.1 Geographic Data Set The following parameters are saved for various geographic data types:
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: Format used to display degrees, minutes, and seconds for geographic coordinate systems
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Population, geoclimatic parameters, vector traffic maps, and other vector layers: • : Name of the folder • : (Different combinations of the following parameters exist in different display settings.) • Display type , selected field , visibility flag , and visibility range between and • properties, such as: font name , font size , font colour , background colour , and font style MS Shell Dlg-830 0 0255 255 255900.1000.255 96 0255 0 00Population15
8001 // or or ByIntervals35054.56.255 38 0255 38 0510150020000000YesClutter Classes0 // or Digital Terrain Model // or Clutter Heights50020000000YesByIntervals050
11.1.2 Zones The user configuration files store the coordinates of the vertices of the filtering, focus, computation, printing, and geographic export zone polygons, i.e., the points forming these polygons. The first and the last points have the same coordinates. Sample The following sample has rectangular computation and focus zones of the same size. 35950.000000 -15445.00000033.000000 -15445.00000033.000000 -33.00000035950.000000 -33.00000035950.000000 -15445.00000035950.000000 -15445.00000033.000000 -15445.00000033.000000 -33.00000035950.000000 -33.00000035950.000000 -15445.000000
11.1.3 Folder Configuration The following parameters are saved for the following folders: •
Sites folder: • : Name of the folder • : • Displate type , selected field , visibility flag , and visibility range between and
0 0 0255 255 255-60.255 0 00 0 0167100 // or Propagation Models // or Smart Antenna Models // or
11.1.4 Coverage Predictions The list of coverage predictions available in the Predictions folder and the following parameters are saved: •
General tab: • : Name of the technology • : Name of the folder • : Prediction resolution • : , , and criteria for the prediction • : Locked or not Conditions tab: Depend on technologies and prediction types. • : Cell edge coverage probability • : Indoor coverage checked or not • : Shadowing margin taken into account or not • ... Display tab: • : (Different combinations of the following parameters exist in different display settings.) • Display type , selected field , visibility flag , opacity , and visibility range between and • properties, such as for each item: , , ,