 BTS and MS. Another factor attributing to the path length between the two antennas (BTS and MS) is the propagation loss due to environmental conditions. Example 1: Calculation of number of sites required in a region A network is to be designed that should cover an area of 1000 km2. The base stations to be used are 3-sectored. Each sector (cell) covers a range of 3.0 km Thus, area covered by each site = k*R2 Where: k = 1.95 Area covered by each site = 1.95*32==17.55km Thus: total number of sites = 1000/17.55 = 56.98 22 57 sites Capacity can be understood in simplest terms as the number of mobile subscribers a BTS can cater for at a given time. The greater the capacity, the more mobile subscribers RADIO NETWORK PRE-PLANNING can be connected to the BTS at a given time, thereby reducing the amount of base stations in a given network. This reduction would lead to an increase in the operation efficiency and thereby profits for the network operator. As the number of frequency channels in the GSM is constant (i.e. 125 for GSM 900 in either direction), the re-use of these frequencies determines the number of mobile subscribers who can be connected to a base station. So, efficient frequency planning which includes the assignment of given frequencies and their re-use plays an important part in increasing the capacity of the radio network. The quality of the network is quite dependent upon the parameter settings. Most of these are implemented during the rollout of the network, just before the launch. In some cases these values are fixed, and in some other cases they are based on measurements done on existing networks. With the first GSM network to be launched in a given region/country, it is helpful for the radio planners to plan these values beforehand for the initial network launch before they have the first measurement results. These may include radio resource manage- ment (RRM), mobility management, signalling, handover, and power control parameters. Once there are some measurements available from the initial launch of 