Page 47 - ITU Kaleidoscope 2016

ICTs for a Sustainable World

Table 3. Installed tower locations and details In CDMA, MTx Level produces true coverage indicator
Sec while comparing with GSM coverage. It will have better
BTS tor Latitud Longi- Ht. correlation than Rx Level under unloaded condition. It was
Site Name ID # e tude (ft) observed that TTL CDMA coverage is continuous whereas
the coverage plots of Vodafone and Airtel seem to be
Sasavane 380 3 18.7874 72.8654 45 patchy and discrete.
Varsoli_Aliba 18.6667 72.8687
ug 381 3 8 5 35
4.4.2 Quality Comparison
Borli-Mandla 382 3 18.5105 72.9132 50
Parameters Compared:
Murud_Raigad 387 2 18.3373 72.9591 60 - TTL CDMA – Ec/Io Level
Borli Panchtan 384 3 18.1627 73.0019 55 - Vodafone GSM – AMR C/I Level
- Airtel GSM – AMR C/I Level
Shreevardhan 385 2 18.0517 73.0263 50

Aravi 386 2 18.0848 73.0062 50 These parameters capture the network and call quality
considering the degradation due to interference.
4.4 Parametric test based comparative study of major Additionally, FER parameter of TTL CDMA compared
with Rx Qual (sub) parameters of GSM operators. Rx Qual
operators’ signal in same region
(sub) is considered to be crude way to indicate quality as it
will reflect only idle scenarios. It was observed (fig. 12)
It was decided to conduct a comparative study of the that TTL CDMA signal has superior quality compared to
installed service’s quality, coverage and data speed with the Vodafone and Airtel (fig. 13). Vodafone signal quality
other major service provider in the region. Three test drive seems to be deteriorating as the distance increases from the
kits were prepared to capture TTL CDMA, Vodafone and shore. Airtel signal quality seems to be patchy and
Airtel GSM network coverage parameters. The handsets degraded.
and the laptops were connected. The entire setup was
connected to the inverter powered by a battery. Boat drive 4.4.3 Data Speeds Comparison
for the field testing started from the Revdanda jetty (which
is in the range of Borli Mandla tower and has Alibaug Parameters Compared:
tower in North and Murud tower in South). We cruised - TTL CDMA – Ec/Io Level
towards deep sea in west direction for approx. 32 km. From - Vodafone GSM – AMR C/I Level
that point, we cruised towards south approx. 24 km and - Airtel GSM – AMR C/I Level
finally back to jetty travelling approx. 30 km diagonally
north-east. These parameters captures the network and call quality
considering the degradation due to interference.
The link budget modeler estimated the coverage upto 25 Additionally, FER parameter of TTL CDMA compared
km, but the actual ground (sea) data indicated the signal with Rx Qual (sub) parameters of GSM operators. It was
availability upto 32+ km in the sea. Beyond the distance of observed (fig. 14) that TTL data speeds are higher due to
30-35km, the coverage is restricted by the earth’s curvature selective deployment of EVDO technology, which is an
based on tower/antenna height and line of sight visibility. evolution of CDMA technology (comparable to 3G) to
cater to optimum data speeds. Higher data speeds improve
Following sections cover the comparative study across
three major parameters: coverage, quality and data speed.
For certain drive routes, network details were not captured
for GSM operators either due to GPS synchronization
failure or device issue. So, to bring the parity in the
comparison and carry out apple to apple comparative study,
the statistics and plots of drive routes which are common to
all 3 operators are considered. The individually exclusive
details are not captured while comparing with other
operators.

4.4.1 Coverage Comparison
Parameters Compared:
- TTL CDMA – MTx Level
- Vodafone GSM – Rx Level
- Airtel GSM – Rx Level Figure 12. Signal coverage

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