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Page 1 of 24 Programme London Underground Commercial Telecommunications Project Public Cellular Network Feasibility Study Document Reference D-CEL1560 Version 1.8 Title Waterloo & City Cellular Network Trial Report Signature Date Prepared By: Robert Ivers RF Consultant Peer Review By: Anthony Hickey Radio Engineering Lead Approved By: John Lichnerowicz Design Group Lead Reviewed By: James Batchelor London Underground Lead Engineer Sponsor: Matthew Griffin Head of Telecoms (Commercial Development) Summary: This document provides an overview of the Public Cellular Network 4G/LTE trial carried out on the London Underground Waterloo and City line. This testing involved the Waterloo & Bank stations and the connecting tunnels. This testing was supported by Thales, Huawei, Telefonica O2, Vodafone, TfL (LU) Engineering, Public Cellular Project team and the TfL Emergency Services Network Project Team (including Fujitsu Services and Installation Technology).

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Page 1: Programme London Underground Commercial …content.tfl.gov.uk/waterloo-and-city-line-connectivity-trial-summer-2017.pdf · Station areas were covered using Huawei’s Lampsite 2.0

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Programme London Underground Commercial Telecommunications

Project Public Cellular Network Feasibility Study

Document Reference D-CEL1560

Version 1.8

Title Waterloo & City Cellular Network Trial Report

Signature Date

Prepared By: Robert Ivers

RF Consultant

Peer Review By: Anthony Hickey

Radio Engineering Lead

Approved By: John Lichnerowicz

Design Group Lead

Reviewed By: James Batchelor

London Underground Lead Engineer

Sponsor: Matthew Griffin

Head of Telecoms (Commercial Development)

Summary: This document provides an overview of the Public Cellular Network 4G/LTE trial

carried out on the London Underground Waterloo and City line. This testing involved the

Waterloo & Bank stations and the connecting tunnels. This testing was supported by Thales,

Huawei, Telefonica O2, Vodafone, TfL (LU) Engineering, Public Cellular Project team and

the TfL Emergency Services Network Project Team (including Fujitsu Services and

Installation Technology).

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Table of Contents

1. Document Control .......................................................................................................... 3

1.1. Document Control / Change History ........................................................................ 3

1.2. Document References ............................................................................................ 3

1.3. Acronyms and Abbreviations .................................................................................. 3

2. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 6

2.1. Background............................................................................................................. 6

2.2. Trial equipment ....................................................................................................... 7

2.3. MNO Engagement ................................................................................................ 11

2.4. MNO Integration works ......................................................................................... 11

2.5. Installation of Trial Infrastructure ........................................................................... 12

2.6. Objectives of Trial ................................................................................................. 13

2.7. Testing Methodology ............................................................................................. 13

3. Test Results ................................................................................................................. 14

3.1. Station Areas ........................................................................................................ 15

3.2. Tunnel Areas ........................................................................................................ 17

3.3. Full End to End Testing ......................................................................................... 20

4. Conclusions and Lessons Learnt ................................................................................. 22

5. Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... 24

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1. Document Control

1.1. Document Control / Change History Versio

n

Checked by Date Comment Editor

0.A 06/11/17 First draft Robert Ivers

0.1 08/11/17 Initial Structure Proposed Robert Ivers

0.2 John Lichnerowicz 08/11/17 Initial internal review Robert Ivers

0.3 08/11/17 Updated Content Robert Ivers

0.4 Robert Ivers 09/11/17 Updated Content Anthony Hickey

0.5 Robert Ivers 10/11/17 Updated Content Fujitsu Team

1.0 Anthony Hickey 13/11/17 Internal Review Robert Ivers

1.1 John Lichnerowicz 13/11/17 Updated Content Robert Ivers

1.2 John Lichnerowicz 14/11/17 Formatted Robert Ivers

1.3 Robert Ivers 14/11/17 Updated Content Kenny Foster

1.4 John Lichnerowicz 16/11/17 Updated Formatting Robert Ivers

1.5 John Lichnerowicz 16/11/17 Updated Formatting Robert Ivers

1.6 Robert Ivers 19/11/17 Updated content and conclusions John Lichnerowicz

1.7 Robert Ivers 23/11/17 Updated Content John Lichnerowicz

1.2. Document References D-CEL1520 High-Level Design version 1.01

D-CEL1533 ESN Waterloo & City Trial Test Plan v1.0

D-CEL1557 O2 W&C Executive Report v2.0

D-CEL1558 Vodafone W&C Executive Report v1.5

D-CEL1559 W&C Trial Results - Existing CONNECT Leaky Feeder 800Mhz v2.0

1.3. Acronyms and Abbreviations

Term or

Acronym Definition

3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project

4G Fourth Generation

ADAS Active Distributed Antenna System

ALU Airwave on London Underground

BBU Baseband Unit

BH Busy Hour

bps Bits per Second

BTS Base Transceiver Station

BW Bandwidth

CBC Cross-Band Coupler

CQI Channel Quality Indicator

CW Continuous Wave (i.e. constant power and amplitude)

DAS Distributed Antenna System

dB Decibel - logarithmic unit used to express the ratio of

two values of a physical quantity

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DL Downlink

DTF Distance to Fault

EM Electro-Magnetic

eNodeB Evolved Node B

EPC Evolved Packet Core

ESMCP Emergency Services Mobile Communications

Programme

ESN Emergency Services Network

FTP File Transfer Protocol

GPS Global Positioning System

HP High Power

km/h Kilometres per Hour

ICNIRP International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation

Protection

ICT Information and Communication Technology

ITT Invitation to Tender

LAN Local Area Network

Leaky Feeder

A coaxial cable run along tunnels which emits and

receives radio waves, functioning as an extended

antenna. The cable is "leaky" in that it has gaps or slots

in its outer conductor to allow the radio signal to leak into

or out of the cable along its entire length (definition

courtesy Wikipedia)

LFEPA London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority

LP Low Power

LTE Long Term Evolution Radio Technology

LU London Underground

NH4E Neutral Host for ESN

m Metre

Mbps Megabits Per Second

MHz Mega-Hertz

MIMO Multiple Input, Multiple Output

MM Multi-Mode

MNO Mobile Network Operator

PDSCH Packet Downlink Shared Channel

PFI Private Finance Initiative

PIM Passive Intermodulation

PTP Precision Time Protocol

PUSCH Packet Uplink Shared Channel

PCN Public Cellular Network

RF Radio Frequency

RSRP Reference Signal Received Power

RSRQ Reference Signal Received Quality

RRU Remote Radio Unit

S1 Interface between eNodeB and EPC (MME & S_GW)

SISO Single Input, Single Output

SM Single-Mode

SNR Signal to Noise Ratio

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SyncE Synchronous Ethernet

TETRA Terrestrial Trunked Radio used by London Underground

and Airwave

TfL Transport for London

UE User Equipment

UL Uplink

UK United Kingdom

UTP Unshielded Twisted Pairs

VoLTE Voice over LTE

VLAN Virtual Local Area Network

WAT Waterloo

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2. Introduction

The Mayor’s Transport Strategy states that ‘The Mayor, through TfL and the boroughs, and

working with other transport operators, will improve customer service across the transport

system with a focus on…making the most of new technology and innovations in customer

service, including provision of mobile phone access underground.’

Improved connectivity in London will have far reaching implications. As well as delivering a

new revenue stream to support the transport service, we can improve the lives of Londoners,

create digital inclusion, change the way transport is used and delivered, support wider

revenue generation and provide countless new opportunities for the technology sector. To

meet the Mayor’s vision for London connectivity, cellular coverage was trialled on the

Waterloo and City line, during summer 2017.

This document describes the testing of 4G/LTE services on the Waterloo and City Line at the

800MHz, 1800MHz & 2100MHz Bands in tunnels, and 1800MHz, 2100MHz & 2600MHz

Bands in the two stations at Waterloo and Bank. Testing was performed in conjunction with

Telefonica O2 and Vodafone, as part of the Waterloo and City Line PCN Project trial.

Tunnels were tested using Huawei High Power Remote Radio Units on CommScope Leaky

Feeder in one half of the tunnel and RFS Leaky Feeder in the other half. Both SISO and

MIMO modes were tested and the cables were newly installed for the trial.

The existing RFS Leaky Feeder, installed in the 2000s for the Operational Radio

Infrastructure, was also tested but at 800MHz only which is close to the upper design

frequency limit for this cable.

Station areas were covered using Huawei’s Lampsite 2.0 solution augmented by Huawei

BTS3911b eNodeB Small Cells in the long connecting corridor at Waterloo.

2.1. Background The objectives for the trial are discussed later in the report. The impetus for the trial was the

need to confirm the results of various design calculations and modelling tools used to predict

the RF performance in the London Underground environment for the Home Office

replacement of the Emergency Services Airwave Network; TfL believing it prudent to obtain

real performance measurements in actual tunnels and stations at all frequencies used by the

MNOs currently.

By resurrecting an earlier test plan proposed by the project team but not actioned, it proved

possible to carry out the trial covering all MNO frequency bands in a short timescale and to

realise objectives other than purely RF performance.

For example, numerous PIM tests were undertaken to confirm, as far as possible, that there

would be no interference with the normal operation of the Tube System by any frequency

band used by any of the MNOs.

All four MNOs were enthusiastic and supportive of the objectives of the trial and Vodafone

and Telefonica O2 actively participated in the trial. It was agreed with the MNOs that TfL

would publish the results of the trial.

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2.2. Trial equipment It was known at this point that the trial architecture was not suitable for creating an ESN

design capable of being enhanced, at a later date, to provide a full PCN service. The primary

intention of the trial was to test Radio Frequency performance in the London Underground

environment and not to select a vendor for deployment as this is the subject of a separate

project and procurement.

The Huawei equipment used also proved capable of meeting LU’s fire materials and EMC

standards.

The Waterloo and City line was selected for the trial as being typical of the construction of

the Tube System. Indeed, the remains of one of the Greathead tunnelling shields from the

original construction works can be seen built into one of the connecting tunnels used by

passengers.

The Waterloo and City Line was opened in 1898 to transport people from Waterloo directly

into the City’s financial district without the disruption that would have ensued and the high

cost of procuring a route had the company attempted to extend the railway above ground

from Waterloo. It was the second underground railway to be built in London and was

transferred to London Underground almost a century after it opened.

The line comprises just Waterloo and Bank stations linked by 2.1 km of dual bore tunnel.

Extended engineering hours at weekends allow testing to take place over fewer nights than

would be the case with other tube lines.

The trial network architecture deployed on the Waterloo and City Line is illustrated in the

three diagrams following this page.

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All equipment was tested to ensure that it complied with London Underground’s stringent

Category 1 standards for Electro-Magnetic Compatibility and fire materials compliance. The

trial was closely monitored to ensure that there was no risk of interference with the correct

operation of the railway. PIM studies were undertaken for all radio, Wi-Fi and Signalling

Systems in use on London Underground. The evidence collected during the trial will be used

to support the case to TfL (LU) Heads of Discipline that 4G / LTE can be deployed within

London Underground subject to any further testing required to check compatibility with

operational equipment unique to a particular Underground Line..

2.3. MNO Engagement The Commercial Development team met with all four UK MNOs to discuss the PCN project

and proposed trial. All MNOs were offered the opportunity to take part in the trial stage. All

MNOs expressed interest in the trial and its results.

It was agreed that the 800MHz, 2100MHz & 2600MHz spectrum would be used when testing

with Vodafone, and to use the 800MHz and 1800MHz spectrum when testing with Telefonica

O2. The Vodafone 800MHz spectrum was also used for the testing of the existing Leaky

Feeder installed some years ago.

The BTS3911b eNodeB small cell testing used the Telefonica O2 1800MHz spectrum.

2.4. MNO Integration works Vodafone has an existing working relationship with Huawei and decided to use its standard

Macro cell design and rollout procedure. This eliminated the need to use the Huawei U2000

management system installed for the trial. It was agreed for the trial that Vodafone would

configure the Trial equipment with no hands-on assistance from the Test Team as

connection was to Vodafone’s live core network.

A BT backhaul circuit was installed at Waterloo, and Vodafone provided a Cisco ASR901

router to connect to the trial network from their live EPC. Timing for the BBUs RRUs and

Lampsite was delivered via the BT circuit using SyncE.

The BTS3911b small cells were not included in the Vodafone trial because they were

deployed over the station’s Ethernet LAN and it was not possible to extend SyncE timing

over the network switches incorporated in the station LAN element of the backhaul network.

(Lampsite and the RRUs use CPRI in the fronthaul which transports the required timing from

the BBUs).

Telefonica O2 elected to use the TfL trial equipment in its entirety. A BT backhaul circuit

was installed at Waterloo to connect between a Fujitsu Cisco ASR901 router on the trial

network, including the U2000, and Telefonica O2’s test EPC. Telefonica O2 provided the

configuration (VLAN’s and routing information) to Fujitsu to configure connectivity between

the trial network the EPC in their test bed. A Huawei IP Clock Server, synchronised with

GPS, was used to provide PTP timing for the BBUs, Lampsite and Small Cells. The use of

PTP enabled Small Cells to be included in the trial as it was possible to carry this timing

protocol, across the TfL LAN routers and switches, something which was not possible with

SyncE.

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2.5. Installation of Trial Infrastructure The U2000 management system was installed at Albany House. Apart from the data circuit

provisions by the telecommunication providers, all other active and passive equipment

installation was undertaken by the PCN project team. It was necessary to have staff

experienced with and licensed to work in the LU environment.

For the Leaky Feeder provision, a new bespoke cable management system was installed in

the eastbound Waterloo & City line tunnel, where a total of 2,936 new brackets were

required. Extensive gauge clearance survey works preceded the installation with constant

rechecking throughout the works until completion. This gauging ensured cables were

installed in the optimum position without infringing on the train’s kinetic envelope, further

ensuring that the new installation did not affect the trains service or any other services

running through the tunnels.

The installation of the Leaky Feeder cables proved challenging as the overall diameter of the

cable exceeds 50mm and the cable is rather inflexible as a result.

The method chosen to deliver the cable to site was on 3m diameter drums positioned on

cable trailers just outside the station entrances. Traffic management measures were

implemented to protect pedestrians and motorists from the works. The cables were

deployed through the station by hand to the eastbound track on the Waterloo & City Line.

Two parallel cables were installed per shift in 550m lengths, each dressed into the previously

installed route in a MIMO configuration. CommScope Leaky Feeder was run in one half of

the tunnel and RFS Leaky Feeder in the other half.

The Installation had to be completed within engineering hours; between the last train passing

through to the depot and both stations closing at night and ensuring the station and track

were clear before the station re-opened to the public on the following morning. The timing of

the installation process was crucial as it is not possible to partly install a cable and leave it

lying around in the tunnel until the next engineering shift.

Hand-pulling the Leaky Feeder through the station proved to be a fast, safe and an effective

way of installing an entire 550m length of Leaky Feeder cable in a single shift without

requiring the support of an Engineer’s Train.

Selecting locations for the installation of the High Power Leaky Feeder amplifiers (RRUs)

was similarly challenging, constrained as the team was by space availability and a maximum

distance of 40 metres from amplifier to Leaky Feeder to avoid affecting performance and

Link Budget calculations.

Under the previous 2012 Public Wi-Fi project, two CAT5e UTP cables were installed for

each Access Point deployed on stations in accordance with structured cabling good practice.

This second spare UTP cable was pressed into service for Waterloo and Bank stations to

connect to the Lampsite low power radio heads and BTS3911b Small Cells thus reducing

the cost of the trial.

There was however no way of avoiding the need to install single mode fibre optic cable and

power to the Leaky Feeder amplifiers (RRUs).

Some of the cable management system and mounting frames for the RRUs were

manufactured off site. This allowed for a more efficient use of the limited time on site.

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2.6. Objectives of Trial The following objectives were key reasons behind performing the trial.

To demonstrate that the MNO spectrum when used in the LU environment would not interfere with any existing services in the stations or tunnel areas.

To obtain real world results for 4G / LTE performance in the London Underground environment. To confirm prediction models and link budgets are accurate for both station and tunnel areas.

To compare and test the differently polarised, newly installed Leaky Feeder solutions from CommScope and RFS.

To test the existing Operational Radio Services Leaky Feeder’s ability to support 4G/LTE at 800MHz and compare performance against the newly installed Leaky Feeder cable types.

To demonstrate successful handover between the station Lampsite and the tunnel Leaky Feeders by testers equipped with handsets (UEs) walking through one station starting at the ticket concourse down to platform level then transferring to a motorised track trolley for the journey to the second station for the walk up to the ticket concourse.

To establish the installation and commissioning procedures and processes required to interface with the MNOs, TfL (LU) Engineering, Operations and the Project Team.

To demonstrate that Small Cells with dedicated S1s (i.e. eNodeB) can be used as an alternative where space or location inhibits the use of a DAS solution.

To demonstrate if the Rhode & Schwarz ZVH8 cable tester can be used as an effective method for assuring Leaky Feeder installations including location of faults.

2.7. Testing Methodology Data was collected using Anite Walker Air software and six Samsung S7 UEs. The UEs

were housed in a backpack and controlled by a master unit tablet. The UEs used MNO

provided SIMs which could connect to the MNOs EPC (Evolved Packet Core). Testing was

performed with either the UEs locked to specified Bands, or with the UEs open, i.e. not

locked to a Band. This test equipment measured and recorded several important mobile

characteristics. These include RSRP and PDSCH throughput – the results of which are

included within this report. Tunnel testing was performed using a track trolley travelling at a

constant speed, this ensured mid-tunnel locations could be calculated with certainty.

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3. Test Results

Over a period of three weeks testing was conducted using Vodafone and then Telefonica O2

spectrum in the station and tunnels areas associated with the Waterloo & City line. At all

stages of testing when a new frequency was introduced to either the stations or tunnel

areas, both the Thales and LFEPA systems were monitored for any negative impact. At no

point during testing was an issue on the existing systems detected.

Testing was broken into three streams, station system testing, tunnel system testing and full

solution end-to-end testing. Additional testing which will assist with design work going

forward was also performed such as MIMO and SISO benchmarking for the tunnels and

2600MHz testing in the stations.

The results presented here are for the MIMO configuration of the new CommScope and RFS

cables and SISO for the existing Operational Radio Services cable.

Tests were either in idle mode or active mode. For active mode we performed downlink and

uplink FTP sessions. The FTP server used was an Amazon Web Server running an Ubuntu

operating system using Filezilla FTP Server software, located in the London eu-west-2a data

centre. VoLTE calls were performed at all stages of testing. The UEs used for all VoLTE

calls were provided by the MNOs and were not equipped with software which would have

enabled VoLTE call statistics to be presented to supplement the FTP testing and in fact

these call statistics were not required by the test plan.

However, it is worth noting that the first VoLTE call from a London Underground Tunnel was

made in the Westbound tunnel of the Waterloo & City line via a Vodafone signal and the

existing Leaky Feeder used by the Operational Radio Services.

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3.1. Station Areas Below we show the idle mode RSRP signal strength coverage levels collected at the Bank Ticket area. Initial planning and selection of

locations for Lampsite was performed using iBwave. The plots below are from iBwave and Anite software. Anite shows pin point results which

were collected during a walk test, whilst iBwave is a full floor plot, both plots are of the same floor plan. When we compare iBwave plots with

the collected data we observe a good correlation. Based on these results we would not need to alter the Lampsite locations.

Collected Data:

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Predicted Data:

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3.2. Tunnel Areas Below we show a graph of the idle mode RSRP signal strength collected from travelling the entire length of the tunnel in a motorised track

trolley at 12kph. The results below are the raw measurements collected during a trolley trip in the tunnel, further processed results are also

shown on following graphs. When we compare the actual data with our link budgets we see a good correlation.

BANK

RRU

WAT RRU RFS Leaky Feeder CommScope Leaky Feeder

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The data collected from testing confirmed the manufactures technical specifications. Below we show the post processed data of both solutions

at 800MHz. This analysis was performed at all frequencies and when compared with the link budget calculations a good correlation was

observed. Based on these results both solutions would give contiguous coverage above the design target in the Waterloo & City tunnels.

However, at 800MHz which is of most interest to TfL, we predict the CommScope cable would show an advantage in longer tunnel sections.

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

-140

-135

-130

-125

-120

-115

-110

-105

-100

-95

-90

-85

-80

-75

-70

-65

-60

-55

-50

-45

-40

13161 13261 13361 13461 13561 13661

Distance from Bank headwall [m]

RSR

P [d

Bm

]

Time after midnight [s]

RSRP Collection Under 1-5/ 8" RFS(left - Bank) and Commscope (right - WAT) 800 MHz/ EARFCN

6400

RSRP_800_PCI_497_RFS

RSRP_800_PCI_495_Comm

PCI_497_RFS_800_AVG

PCI_495_Comm_800_AVG

PCI_497_RFS_95%

PCI_495_Comm_95%

Min RSRP O/D 800

Min RSRP I/D 800

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Testing of the existing CONNECT RFS leaky feeder at 800MHz indicated that for tunnels of less than 1.5km reuse of the cable could be a

potential option. The graph below shows the processed results.

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3.3. Full End to End Testing To demonstrate the mobility of the entire solution, a full end-to-end test was performed. Travelling from the macro layer to the Waterloo

Lampsite then via the tunnel to the Bank Lampsite and out onto the macro layer. The graph below shows the downlink FTP session for the test.

Note that two UEs were used for this testing. The session is successfully retained throughout the entire end-to-end test. However, some dips in

the throughput are observed at the handover areas. This is due to using default parameter settings which had no optimisation work done to

tune the settings, which is required when introducing new cells into an existing network. With some minor tweaking of parameters and more

traffic between the handover layers which helps build the ANR (Automatic Neighbour Relations) we would see an improvement in the

performance at these handover areas.

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WAT Station Tunnel section BANK Station

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4. Conclusions and Lessons Learnt All Test objectives were met:

It was confirmed via PIM calculations and on-site monitoring during testing in engineering hours, that there was no interference from the trial equipment with any existing services in the Waterloo & City Line stations or tunnel areas on any of the MNO frequencies tested.

The real-world results for 4G / LTE performance in the London Underground environment showed a good correlation with the Project Team’s calculations; its High-Level Design calculations are neither unduly optimistic nor pessimistic. In particular Link Budgets were confirmed as being accurate for both station and tunnel areas.

When tested the differently polarised, newly installed Leaky Feeder solutions from CommScope and RFS each showed a good match to their published specifications suggesting that each cable was optimised for different frequency bands. The RFS solution appeared to perform better than CommScope at 1800MHz, for example, with CommScope appearing to have the edge in the 800MHz frequency band that TfL is particularly interested in for tunnels.

The existing Operational Radio Services Leaky Feeder’s ability to support 4G/LTE at 800MHz SISO was confirmed at tunnel lengths up to 1.5 km.

The Project Team demonstrated successful handover between the station Lampsite DAS and the tunnel Leaky Feeders by testers equipped with handsets (UEs) walking through one station starting at the ticket concourse down to platform level then transferring to a motorised track trolley for the journey to the second station for the walk up to the ticket concourse. At no time was the FTP session dropped and in fact the data rate never dropped below 1Mbps in the tunnel. Further optimisation work would have reduced the dips at the handover points.

The Project Team demonstrated that handover between Lampsite and the BTS3911b eNodeB small cells was seamless and that a combination of DAS and eNodeB devices is a practical possibility. This testing also showed that the very high precision timing required for such nodes could be provided across an Ethernet LAN incorporating both Cisco routers and Brocade Ethernet switches using PTP (IEEE 1588v2) synchronised from a time server connected to GPS via an antenna on top of Waterloo Station.

During installation of various Leaky Feeder co-axial jumper cables a length of cable became unserviceable. The Rhode & Schwarz ZVH8 cable tester identified the distance from the point of insertion to the cable fault allowing the defective jumper cable to be replaced in a short timescale. The tester also isolated a faulty connector on another occasion demonstrating its effectiveness. It was suspected that this connector failure was caused by the number of times it was disconnected at the end of a test session and re-connected at the start Equipment was uninstalled and reinstalled during the testing. During a real deployment this would not be a problem as the connectors would be installed and then only undone to deal with a fault.

The Installation Team had previously evaluated options for installing the bulky radiating cable in tunnels. The necessity, for the Waterloo and City Line, of settling on 550 metre drums of cable at the station entrance which were hand pulled into the tunnels and laid into previously installed mounting brackets was brought about by the lack of access into this part of London Underground where rolling stock has to be

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craned into the line via a mobile crane. However, this method of installation proved to be safe, fast and eliminates the need for resources such as Engineers’ Trains and so is recommended Leaky Feeder installation.

The Design Team were able to establish safe handling procedures for the radio equipment which were adhered to by the installation teams which gained valuable insight in handling this type of RF equipment and connectors. ICNIRP targets were confirmed by measurements – EM field exposure is well within legal limits (less than 5%) while still delivering the required user experience.

MIMO vs SISO throughput differences were benchmarked and showed MIMO to bring more than a 90% boost in in downlink throughput for both the CommScope and

RFS solutions.

Optimum parameter setting in terms of hand-over delays and layer priority were extracted from sampling the tunnel environment and will be incorporated into the High-Level Design

The Project Team carried over many of the procedures and processes for installation

and commissioning from previous experience in deploying Wi-Fi to all LU sub-surface

stations and these generally worked well. In addition the Project Team concluded:

Much assistance was received from the Operational Radio Services team and contractors. Although such help is not unusual, being able to tap into this depth of experience will serve the project well during full deployment. Equally the Heads of Discipline within TfL (LU) Engineering provided much valuable guidance and direction in the run up to the trial, particularly those responsible for ICT, EMC and Fire Materials Compliance.

The London Underground trial environment was a new experience for the MNOs and minor but time-consuming issues relating to parameter settings and SIM provisioning were experienced. The Project Team’s test plan should, in retrospect, have included more time for commissioning with a further window allowing for further parameter optimisation.

The provision of external data links proved to have the longest lead-time of any activity on the plan. Also, there were issues with people turning up at site without the correct credentials to access the operational railway – albeit where this did happen we were able to manage the work to avoid it impacting the programme.

Continuity of membership of working groups is required to avoid delays. One of our suppliers was forced to change technical personnel during the project which created delays to the beginning of the trial.

Constraints on space were felt. Happily, both the Lampsite and BTS3911b devices were of a small size comparable to the existing Wi-Fi Aps. It was more difficult to find room to install the High Power tunnel Leaky Feeder RF amplifiers and associated AC to DC convertor.

.

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5. Acknowledgements Getting to the point where testing was possible required a lot of cooperation and goodwill

from various TfL disciplines along with the concerted effort of our equipment suppliers, the

project deployment team and our service providers. The author of this report would like to

thank the following (in alphabetical order):

EE

ESN Project Team

Huawei

Telefonica O2

Thales

Three Mobile

TfL (LU) Engineering

TfL Commercial Development

TfL Technology & Data

Vodafone

The Project Team would like particularly to thank Michael Bowling who undertook much out

of hours testing whilst the trial network was energised.