The Parameter Planning component is part of the Parameter Optimization Module. It helps you optimize channels and the technology-specific parameter assignments of the Radios in your network.

You can set up and manage several parameter planning components in your project. Typically, you would set up one parameter planning component for each Layer Model in your project. You can use the relevant section of the Technology Start Page to do this automatically.

Installing the Parameter Optimization Module

The Parameter Optimization Module can be installed by clicking the Install button on the Parameter Optimization product page. Once installed, you will need to restart Overture to use this module's features.

Accessing the Parameter Planning Component

The parameter optimization module adds several new buttons to the Toolbar:

Clicking the Parameter Planning button () will display a pull-down list of all the parameter planning components in your project. Selecting any of these will display its properties in the Properties Window:

You can also access the collection of parameter planning components from the Optimization > Radio Parameters menu option.

The Parameter Optimization module comes with several process pages to help you use its various functions. You can access the page for the parameter planning component from the Start Page, by first clicking on Optimization, then on Parameter Optimization, and finally on Parameter Planning:

The functions of this page are described here.

The Parameter Planning Process

Overture's parameter planning algorithm scores possible changes to a parameter using an interference matrix. This is an abstraction of the interference between every pair of servers in the network. The interference matrix for a particular layer is derived from the network's Interference Matrix component. Using an interference matrix allows Overture to very quickly investigate a large number of parameter assignments at each site.

The aim of the parameter planning component is to reduce the overall interference in the network, where the network quality is measured using the interference matrix. A simplified version of the optimization algorithm is given below:

        Compute the interference matrix for the given layer
    
        Repeat
            For each selected radio 
                Try all possible assignments of parameter values for the given layer
                If any assignment improves the interference score, keep it
        Until the termination criteria is satisfied, or until no improvements were found
        
        Report any the changes made
    

All parameter settings suggested by the algorithm are taken from the parameter range of the appropriate Sectors and Radios on the affected site. Any Constraints that apply to the site are also obeyed.

Note the algorithm implemented by the parameter planning component incorporates many proprietary speed-ups and enhancements. This enables it to process networks with many thousands of sites in reasonable time scales.

Properties

A parameter planning component has the following properties:

• Name. This is name of the optimizer. Note that all names must be unique.
• Optimization Layer. This is a reference to the Layer Model that will be targeted during optimization.
• Termination Criteria. This specifies how long or how deeply the optimization process should run for. You can specify Maximum Runtime in the "Hours:Minutes:Seconds" format, or you can specify a Pass Limit. Both fields are optional: the process will stop as soon as either is achieved. If no termination criteria is specified the process will run until no change improves the network.

Actions

The parameter planning component provides the following actions:

• Start. This starts the optimization process on the selected sites.
• Stop. This will stop the current run. When it completes, a table showing the improvement will be generated, along with a list of all the changes applied.