Adding a new simulation
To add a new simulation, go to Simulations, then:
- either click
on
the top right of the page, - or clone an existing simulation as described in cloning a simulation.
Base station credit
Before launching a new simulation, make sure you have enough base station credit. Each base station involved in the simulation scope counts "1" in your credit verification. If your CSV file contains more gateways than your remaining credit, the simulation cannot be launched.
Your current credit is displayed on the top right of the user interface. It corresponds to the total number of base stations that can be simulated in one or several simulations. Contact your ThingPark support team to purchase credit.
After launching a simulation, if it eventually fails, the related base station amount is credited back to your counter.
Simulation parameters
To launch a simulation request, you need to fill the different input parameters, guided by the table below. All the mandatory inputs are marked by a red asterisk.
Some inputs are already prefilled, either by default settings inherited from the user preferences or inherited from a cloned simulation. You may overwrite any prefilled value if needed.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| Prediction type | - Safe type of predictions is recommended for urban propagation environments, but it is relatively conservative for rural environments. - Optimistic type of predictions is more realistic for rural environments, but it might provide optimistic coverage for other urban environments. |
| Device TX Power | Maximum emission power of the end-device, as supported by its hardware, in dBm. Use a worst-case value if your deployment involves several device models with different transmission capabilities. |
| Device antenna gain | Antenna gain of the end-device, in dBi. Use a worst-case value if your deployment involves several device models with different hardware capabilities. |
| Device location | Worst-case location of end-devices served by your gateways. - Outdoor: The device is outside, there is no wall around it. - Indoor Daylight: The device is located inside a room on the edge of a building, it is close to the building facade. This mode is also known as light indoor mode or indoor first wall. - Deep Indoor: The device is located inside a room deep inside a building. There are several walls around it. - Basement: The device is located under the ground, or in a very deep indoor location inside a building, with a lot of metallic barriers. |
| Device height from ground | Typical setting = 0.5 or 1m to model a device location at the ground floor, which is a kind of worst-case scenario compared to devices located at higher floors. Must be >0 even if a device is located in a basement (in which case set “Device location” = Basement and set “Height from ground” = 0.1: with this setting, the effect of the end-device location is directly modeled in the “basement” indoor penetration losses, not through the antenna height). |
| Country | Country where your gateways are (or will be) deployed. This settings is directly inherited from the user preferences. |
| ISM Band | This parameter defines the LoRaWAN regional profile corresponding to your deployment. By default, it is directly inherited from the country regulations, but you may change it if your country supports several regional profiles (for instance, both EU868 and AS923 are supported in Philippines). |
| Max Uplink radiated TxPower | Maximum authorized effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) imposed by the country regulation, for uplink direction, in dBm. |
| Max Downlink RX1 radiated TxPower | Maximum authorized effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) imposed by the country regulation, for downlink direction and applicable to RX1 frequencies, in dBm. |
| Max Downlink RX2 radiated TxPower | Maximum authorized effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) imposed by the country regulation, for downlink direction and applicable for RX2 frequencies, in dBm. |
| Uplink Noise Rise | Average noise rise over the thermal noise level as seen by the gateway, in dB. - By default, this value is set to 10dB, but it is strongly recommended to set the appropriate value reflecting the noise floor measured by the spectrum analyzer or the gateway onsite. - For more information about spectrum measurements, see the Spectrum Analysis User Guide. |
| Downlink Noise Rise | Average noise rise over the thermal noise level as seen by the end-device, in dB. This value may be either: - derived from uplink noise rise measurements, taking into account the difference between the end-device location and gateway location. For example, if the end-device is expected to be located deep indoors, it is reasonable to assume 5-10dB lower downlink noise floor than what could be measured by a gateway located outdoors at rooftop. - Alternatively, the expected downlink noise floor could be measured by a spectrum analyzer. |
| Maximum Uplink Spreading Factor | Maximum authorized UL SF at the cell edge. Note that RF coverage is usually maximized by using the lowest data rate (that is to say, the highest spreading factor) allowed by the corresponding regulatory body (for instance: SF12 in Europe, SF10 in USA). However, some high mobility use cases (tracking, for instance) might require using lower SF for optimal performance under fast fading channel conditions. |
| Downlink RX2 Spreading Factor | Spreading factor used to send downlink packets over RX2 window. Note that the downlink link budget computed by the tool relies on RX2 window, since it is considered the limiting DL slot from delay standpoint. |
| Uplink number of transmissions | This parameter defines how many times each uplink frame (that is to say, each FCntUp as per LoRaWAN specification) may be transmitted by a device located at cell edge. For instance, if set to 2, it means that cell edge devices are allowed to send each uplink packet twice. |
Preparing the base station list
Click Export BS List if you want to simulate the coverage of some or all of the base stations declared on your ThingPark SaaS account. The base stations exported in the CSV file are only the ones associated with an outdoor gateway model. Indoor base stations models (such as Kerlink iFemtocell, Browan femto, Multitech Access Point...) will not be exported since the propagation models are only accurate if the base station antenna is located outdoors above the surrounding buildings.
If you do not yet have base stations on your ThingPark SaaS account, or you do not want to include your existing BS fleet to the simulation, click Download sample file to get the CSV template file and fill it with the data you want.
The base station characteristics are uploaded to the simulation through a csv file. Each line represents one base station. For each base station, you need to fill the following information:
- A unique ID, also known as LRR-ID in ThingPark terminology. You can fill it with the base station ID, its friendly name...
- The base station's GPS coordinates, expressed as latitude and longitude in decimal degree format.
- The base station's height above ground, in meters. Note that this is not the GPS altitude.
- Propagation environment: you must associate each base station with a propagation environment among the values {DENSE_URBAN, URBAN, SUBURBAN, RURAL}. To learn more about how to choose the right environment, see Propagation environments.
- Antenna pattern: you can see the list the supported antenna patterns in the Antenna Pattern page of the user interface. The Antenna_pattern column must be filled with the antenna name as written in the Antenna Pattern tab.
- Cable losses in dB. This loss corresponds to the cable, and connector losses. Typical value is around 0.5dB, assuming a short jumper between the gateway connector and the antenna. If longer feeders are installed between the gateway and the antenna, you must compute the right cable losses according to the feeder datasheet (considering the feeder length).
If your base station is already declared on your ThingPark SaaS account and you have already filled the "Propagation Environment" and/or "Cable loss" information under your A1 antenna settings, these values shall be directly prefilled by the tool when exporting your BS list; so that you can directly reuse them in your input csv file.
CSV file verification
When the CSV file is imported, the tool checks that the CSV format is correct (comma ',' or semi-column ';' separation and UTF-8 without BOM) and that all the columns are correctly filled with relevant values. If there are errors in the CSV file, they are displayed by the tool in the Synthesis step. When this is the case, you must modify your CSV file accordingly before launching the simulation.
The geographical area covered by the simulation must be less than 10,000 km² otherwise the simulation cannot start. This area is computed according to the minimum and maximum latitude/longitude of the base stations included in the simulation scope.
Getting the simulation results
Once the simulation is launched, you can follow its status on the Simulations list.
When the simulation is completed, the tool sends a notification email, with a link to the simulation results, as well as the resulting heatmap attached in .kmz format.
If the simulation fails, the credit used at the beginning of the simulation is restored to your account.