Northampton_HS_SC_MA_Capacity_Coverage_JustificationVerizon Wireless Communications Facility
Engineering Necessity Case – Northampton HS SC, MA
Confidential and proprietary materials for authorized Verizon personnel and outside agencies only. Use, disclosure or distribution of this material is not permitted to any unauthorized
persons or third parties except by written agreement.
Prepared by: Juan (Jay) F. Latorre III
June 29th, 2018
Updated September 25th, 2018
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Project Need Overview:
This projects primary objective is to improve service quality at and around Northampton High School. Previous field visits have confirmed that the high school and the surrounding residences
do not have sufficient capacity to provide Verizon customers with a reliable and robust experience. The site also provides capacity offload of our existing sites in Florence & Northampton
which are significantly overloaded. Detail is provided supporting these issues on slide 8.
Our engineering data shows that this area is experiencing 4G data overloads. The existing adjacent sites with their coverage area shown on page 8 need to have some of the area they
cover moved onto another site to allow it to keep performing well. The proposed site does a good job of moving commercial traffic onto a more localized site, better able to serve this
area.
Additional details and explanations follow in this presentation.
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Introduction:
There are two main drivers that prompt the need for a new cell site, coverage and/or capacity. Most sites provide a mixture of both, but increasingly some sites are pure capacity in
areas of good coverage.
Coverage is the need for expanded wireless service in an area that has either no service or poor service. The request for improved service often comes from our customers or emergency
services personnel. While this once meant providing coverage in vehicles, as usage patterns have shifted this now means improving coverage inside of buildings and in residential areas
as well. With older technologies, coverage was the primary means to measure the network in a given area.
Capacity is the need for more wireless resources. This metric is now the primary means to measure how communities’ wireless needs are being addressed. Five bars no longer means guaranteed
coverage and capacity. It is the network’s ability to have the capacity to meet those five bars that is now critical. Cell sites have a limited amount of resources to handle voice
calls, data connections, and data volume. When these limits are reached, the user experience quickly degrades. This could mean that customers cannot make/receive calls or could have
trouble getting applications to run. A site short on capacity could also make internet connections time out or delay information to emergency response personnel.
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Coverage is best shown in coverage maps. We use tools that take into account terrain, vegetation, building types, and cell site specifics to model predictions of the existing coverage
and what we expect to see with a proposed cell site.
Coverage also changes with the frequencies used. While most phones today use 3G at 800 MHZ or 4G at 700 MHz these are low frequencies that have better coverage then the higher 1900
MHz and 2100 MHz that are now coming into use due to increased capacity demands.
Explanation of Wireless Coverage
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Capacity is the amount of resources that a cell has to handle customer demand. Verizon utilizes sophisticated programs and customer feedback to monitor current usage trends and to forecast
future needs. Since it takes an average of 2-3 years to complete a cell site project, we have to start the process of adding a new cell several years in advance of when the cell will
be needed.
Location, Location, Location. A good capacity cell site needs to be in the center of a user population which insures that traffic is evenly distributed around the cell. A typical cell
site is configured as a 3 slice pie shape. With each slice (aka. Sector) having 33% of the cells resources. If one sector is under used it’s resources can not necessarily be used in
a higher use sector. Optimal performance is only obtained when all three sectors have an even traffic distribution.
Explanation of Wireless Capacity
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Wireless Data Growth
Each year we see large increases in how much data our users need. As the resolution of the pictures we send increases, the quality of the video we watch improves, and the complexity
of the applications grow we commonly see data growth rates of 60% per year. According to Cisco, wireless data traffic will increase by a factor of 220 times in the period from 2009
to 2019.
Machine to Machine communications will also increase the loads on wireless networks. Over the next 5 years more and more services will be offered over the wireless infrastructure that
improve our safety and make our lives easier.
A few are listed below.
- Cars that notify 911 when an airbag deploys.
- Driverless cars needing traffic data and maps to reach your destination as quickly as possible.
- Medical monitors that will alert us should a loved one neglect taking their prescription drugs.
- Home alarms that notify you when your child arrives home from school.
- Smart street lights that notify the city when they are not working.
- City garbage cans that let people know when they need to be emptied.
- Tracking watches will aid in finding lost Alzheimer patients.
Explanation of Wireless Data Growth
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A common question we hear on our wireless site projects is “Are the radio emissions safe?”
We go to great effort to ensure that all our projects meet the regulations set by the FCC to ensure safety of the public and our employees. There are a number of questionable sources
of information available on this subject that are not supported by science. Below are links to three organizations that have performed extensive reviews of the science available on
this subject and have good educational articles on the results of their research.
World Health Organization
http://www.who.int/peh-emf/about/WhatisEMF/en/index1.html
America Cancer Society
http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/othercarcinogens/athome/cellular-phone-towers
FCC Radio Frequency Safety
https://www.fcc.gov/general/radio-frequency-safety-0
Radio Emission Safety…
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The above maps shows the existing coverage quality for the area with the existing coverage on the left and the coverage with the proposed cell on the right. Good coverage is shown in
green. This level of coverage is based on the new 4G voice service used in the latest phones which requires stronger signal than the older 3G technology. As can be seen by the expanded
green on the map to the right, this proposed cell improves coverage in the area surrounding the site.
Coverage @ 2100 MHz:
Existing 2100 MHz Coverage Map
Proposed 2100 MHz Coverage Map
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The above map shows the proposed coverage quality for the area by just the proposed site. It also shows surrounding, previously permitted sites that are not yet built. Good coverage
is shown in green. As can be seen by the expanded green on the map, this proposed cell is uniquely designed and situated to improve coverage and provide dedicated capacity to Northampton
High School, and in the area surrounding the site.
Coverage @ 2100 MHz:
Proposed 2100 MHz Coverage Map Zoomed
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Existing Surrounding Macro Cells:
Northampton, MA – 164 North Farms Road, Williamsburg, MA
Florence, MA – 221 Pine Street, Northampton, MA
Surrounding Site Information
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