ADDENDUM 3:Regional digital radio planningResults of prediction and allotment studies for areas within 400 km of SydneySEPTEMBER 2016

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Introduction 1

Aggregation of commercial licence areas – considering adjacent channel interference to TV 2

Appendix A 8Planning parameters 8

Appendix B 9Interference calculation settings 9

Appendix C 10Differential affected populations 10

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IntroductionThis Addendum to the report Regional digital radio planning - Results of prediction and allotment studies for areas within 400 km of Sydney provides the results of additional studies conducted using the revised planning parameters.

The effect of aggregating a limited number of commercial licence areas is analysed with the revised planning parameters, taking into account adjacent channel interference into TV services. The results for similar studies are presented in the main report and Addendum 1, however, the aggregation studies undertaken previously did not attempt to minimise adjacent channel interference into television services.

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Aggregation of commercial licence areas – considering adjacent channel interference to TVTwo previous case studies that examined the impact of aggregating commercial licence areas have been further analysed to take into account the effect of the adjacent channel interference into TV services. The previous case studies were presented in in the main report and Addendum 1. The estimates of the populations affected by interference to VHF television reception are shown in Appendix D of the main report.

A matrix of pairwise interference interactions for all licence areas, using the revised planning parameters, has been used in this study (see Appendix C). This matrix was used as the input to the optimisation algorithm.

It was assumed that allotments 3 and 4 are adjacent to the VHF TV services, (allotments ‘1’ and ‘2’ which are used in Sydney were excluded because they are not adjacent to VHF TV services). For each combination (or set) of allotments considered by the algorithm, the additional interference estimated to occur to television for licence areas on allotments 3 and 4 was added to the total DAB to DAB interference for that set of allotments. The output of the algorithm was the set of allotments that minimised the sum of the DAB to DAB and DAB to TV interference counts.

The first step of the study was to determine the optimised allotments with no aggregations assumed, for 5/3 and 6/2 scenarios when interference into TV is considered. These allotments are shown in Tables 1 and 2 and they were then used to determine interference counts for each licence area individually using the CHIRplus software. These interference counts are presented in Table 7 under the ‘No aggregation’ columns.

Table 1 Optimised 5/3 scenario allotments with no aggregation - revised planning parameters including adjacent TV interference

Allotment 1 Allotment 2 Allotment 3 Allotment 4 Allotment 5

Armidale Bathurst Adjacent Adjacent Campbelltown

Cooma Bega Goulburn Gosford Canberra

Dubbo Gunnedah Katoomba Lithgow Mudgee

Sydney Kempsey Newcastle Nowra Muswellbrook

Young Sydney Orange Parkes Taree

  Wagga Wagga   Tamworth Wollongong

Table 2 Optimised 6/2 scenario allotments with no aggregation - revised planning parameters including adjacent TV interference

Allotment 1 Allotment 2 Allotment 3 Allotment 4 Allotment 5 Allotment 6

Armidale Bathurst Adjacent Adjacent Goulburn Canberra

Bega Cooma Campbelltown Newcastle Katoomba Gosford

Dubbo Kempsey Young Nowra Mudgee Gunnedah

Sydney Sydney   Orange Muswellbrook Lithgow

Wagga Wagga Tamworth     Taree Parkes

          Wollongong

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The next step was to determine the optimised allotments for the two aggregation case studies and the two allotment scenarios being considered (i.e. the 5/3 and 6/2 allotment scenarios) where:

Case study 1 assumed Campbelltown /Katoomba /Lithgow licence areas aggregation.

Case study 2 assumed Campbelltown/Katoomba/Lithgow, Gosford/Newcastle, and Nowra/Wollongong aggregations.

The output of the optimisation algorithm produced the optimised frequency allotments for the two case studies and scenarios 5/3 and 6/2 as shown in Table 3 to Table 6.

Table 3 Optimised 5/3 scenario allotments for aggregation case study 1 - revised planning parameters including adjacent TV interference

Allotment 1 Allotment 2 Allotment 3 Allotment 4 Allotment 5

Cooma Bathurst Adjacent Adjacent Campbelltown/Katoomba/Lithgow

Dubbo Bega Gosford NewcastleKempsey Gunnedah Goulburn NowraSydney Sydney Muswellbrook Orange Armidale

Tamworth Taree Parkes Canberra

Young Wagga Wagga Wollongong Mudgee

Table 4 Optimised 5/3 scenario allotments for aggregation case study 2 -revised planning parameters including adjacent TV interference

Allotment 1 Allotment 2 Allotment 3 Allotment 4 Allotment 5Cooma Bathurst Adjacent Adjacent Campbelltown/

Katoomba/Lithgow

Dubbo Bega Gosford/Newcastle

Nowra/WollongongKempsey Gunnedah

Sydney Sydney Goulburn Muswellbrook ArmidaleTamworth Taree Parkes Orange CanberraYoung Wagga Wagga Mudgee

Table 5 Optimised 6/2 scenario allotments for modified aggregation case study 1 - revised planning parameters including adjacent TV interference

Allotment 1 Allotment 2 Allotment 3 Allotment 4 Allotment 5 Allotment 6

Bega Bathurst Adjacent Adjacent Campbelltown/Katoomba/Lithgow

Armidale

Dubbo Cooma Newcastle Muswellbrook Gosford

Sydney Kempsey Nowra Orange Goulburn

Taree Sydney Young Wollongong Canberra Mudgee

Wagga Wagga Tamworth     Gunnedah  

        Parkes  

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Table 6 Optimised 6/2 scenario allotments for aggregation case study 2 -revised planning parameters including adjacent TV interference

Allotment 1 Allotment 2 Allotment 3 Allotment 4 Allotment 5 Allotment 6

Cooma Bathurst Adjacent Adjacent Campbelltown/Katoomba/Lithgow

Gosford/NewcastleGunnedah Kempsey Bega Nowra/

WollongongSydney Sydney Muswellbrook Dubbo

Taree Tamworth Orange Parkes Armidale Goulburn

Young Wagga Wagga     Canberra  

      Mudgee  

For the 5/3 scenario and case study 1 the optimised allotments are effectively identical to those in Addendum 1 where no adjacent channel interference into TV was considered1. The reason for such outcome is that for this scenario the co-channel digital radio interference is more dominant compared to the adjacent channel interference into TV. Therefore, while different allotments may improve the interference into TV services, they are more likely to cause an increase in the digital radio co-channel interference which would exceed the improvement. For case study 2 and the 5/3 scenario, it was observed that it is rather similar to that when no adjacent channel interference into TV was considered. The only difference is that the Taree licence area was moved to Allotment 2 (co-channelled with Sydney), whereas it was previously on the same allotment with Nowra/Wollongong, Muswellbrook and Orange.

The optimised allotments were analysed in the CHIRplus software to estimate the DAB to DAB interference for each set of licence areas with the same allotment (i.e. would be co-channelled). The estimates of the interfered population counts are presented in Table 7. It can be observed that both aggregation case studies provide significant improvements (in terms of DAB to DAB interference) relative to the non-aggregation studies. Significant improvements can be observed in the Campbelltown, Katoomba, Lithgow, Newcastle and Nowra licence areas.

For the 5/3 scenario, case study 2 offers some additional improvements relative to case study 1, most notably in the Gosford and Wollongong licence areas. The overall improvement achieved in case study 2 is about 50,000 people, relative to case study 1. It should also be noted that in case study 1, a significant increase in interference has been estimated in the Gosford licence area primarily due to it being co-channelled with Wollongong.

For the 6/2 scenario, the overall improvement achieved in case study 2 is only about 3,400 people, relative to case study 1. Moreover, it can be observed that in many licence areas, population counts under both case studies are identical or similar. The reason for such an outcome is that with the revised planning parameters, 6 frequency blocks appear to be sufficient with a small number of aggregations, so the additional aggregations under case study 2 do not offer significant improvements.

It may also be of interest to note that case study 2 for the 5/3 scenario achieved an overall interference count which was rather similar the interference counts for both case studies under 6/2 scenario.

It should also be noted that the total figures in Table 7 also include the self-interference across all licence areas which is estimated to be about 27,000. This interference is residual and cannot be avoided. This implies that the additional interference caused by co-channelling different licence areas should be observed as a difference between total figures in Table 7 for each scenario, and this residual self-interference of about 27,000.

1 It should be noted that the frequency allotments are identical to those in Addendum 1, with only a notational difference, i.e. Allotments 3 and 5 have been swapped. The reason for this swap is that Allotments 3 and 4 are assumed to be adjacent to TV services so that such swap minimises the adjacent channel interference into TV services.

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When compared to the results of the aggregation study presented in Table 15 of the main report, while the overall interference counts are significantly lower for the revised planning parameters, the general trends are reasonably similar. That is for both sets of planning parameters, the 5/3 scenario appears to require the greater aggregation levels of case study 2 to give an acceptable result, while, under the 6/2 scenario lower levels of aggregation appear to give acceptable results.

Table 7 Comparison of the interfered with population counts for each licence area and different scenarios – reduced power and revised planning parameters including adjacent TV interference

5/3 Results 6/2 Scenario Results

Licence area No aggregation

Case study 1

Case study 2

No aggregation

Case study 1

Case study 2

Armidale 0 20 20 0 23 20

Bathurst 824 710 710 609 609 690

Bega 688 667 667 683 683 522

Campbelltown 97167 1157 1157 0 1154 1157

Canberra 64 1027 1027 911 1018 1022

Cooma 184 184 184 159 159 184

Dubbo 359 401 401 9 16 0

Gosford 7166 32657 3603 9532 1051 3600

Goulburn 3855 903 401 313 376 354

Gunnedah 28 94 94 84 87 92

Katoomba 38787 207 207 9907 207 207

Kempsey 523 476 476 476 476 476

Lithgow 38790 1791 1791 43615 737 1791

Mudgee 1243 485 485 965 21 485

Muswellbrook 1302 1617 518 2597 480 388

Newcastle 30476 2812 884 2734 948 854

Nowra 27303 9650 4612 9638 7658 1299

Orange 1336 37 239 37 230 197

Parkes 165 89 89 261 261 69

Sydney 12137 13023 13023 13250 15988 16088

Sydney 13481 17350 13330 13756 13756 13532

Tamworth 70 152 152 14 14 14

Taree 150 339 339 184 428 461

Wagga 170 181 181 160 160 187

Wollongong 8235 12189 2038 21417 1387 923

Young 149 262 262 16 179 117

 Total 284652 98480 46890 131327 48106 44729

Evaluating the effect of increasing the maximum power for one areaIt is proposed that the allotment planning for all areas be based on transmitter networks where all transmitters are to be capped at a maximum of 5 kW ERP. However, it is also proposed that power increases beyond the 5 kW cap could be considered on a case by case basis. To test

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this, the effect of increasing the ERP of Canberra (Black Mountain) to 10 kW has been evaluated.

Case study 1 under the 6/2 scenario has been used as the basis of this study because this case study/scenario is likely to form the basis for the allotment plan for this region – should the DRPC accept the TSC recommendations.

The optimised allotments for the case study 1, 6/2 scenario from Table 5 have been used. As can be seen in Table 5, the Canberra Cat 1 multiplex would operate on Allotment 5 and therefore the interference analysis has only been performed for the licence areas in the Allotment 5 column. All other allotments and their licence areas are unaffected.

The results of this analysis are presented in Table 8. It can be observed that an ERP increase of 3 dB at Black Mountain increases the estimated interference counts in the Campbelltown, Katoomba and Lithgow licence areas2. While the estimated increase in Lithgow is rather minor (only about 70 people), the increases in Katoomba and in Campbelltown are greater. On the other hand, a decrease in the Canberra licence area also occurs, with an estimated coverage increase from about 403,000 to 404,500 people in the Canberra licence area. Overall, the interference count increases by about 3,800.

Table 8 Comparison of the interfered with population counts for Case Study 1 and 6/2 scenario when the Black Mountain ERP has been increased to 10 kW

Licence AreaBlack

Mountain 5 kW

Black Mountain

10 kW

Total covered within licence

area

(absolute interference

increase)

(% of the licence area coverage)

Campbelltown 1154 4310 229470 +3156 +1.38

Canberra 1018 738 404538 -280 -0.07

Gunnedah 87 63 28259 -24 -0.08

Katoomba 207 1076 285382 +869 +0.30

Lithgow 737 806 70316 +69 +0.10

Parkes 261 264 24775 +3 +0.01

Total 3464 7257 1042740 +3793 +0.36

2 It may be observed that interference into Gunnedah decreased, despite the Canberra power increase. This is most likely due to a slightly different area being selected in CHIRplus for the interference calculation which can lead to minor variations in results. Such minor changes are insignificant and should be disregarded.

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Assessment of double counting of interferenceIn Table 7, the individual interference counts have been presented for each licence area, including for the licence areas that are aggregated for the two case studies. Where there is a significant overlap of aggregated licence areas, such as Katoomba and Lithgow, such analysis on the basis of the individual licence areas may lead to double counting of affected population in the overlap areas.

To estimate the extent of this double counting, the results of the interference analysis over the aggregated area are presented in Table 9. Table 9 also contains the interference figures of individual licence areas and the total sum of these individual counts for both 5/3 and 6/2 scenarios and the two case studies. This analysis shows that the effect of double counting the population affected by interference in the overlap area is rather minor and ranges between about 140 and 180 people, depending on the analysed scenario.

Table 9 Difference between the sum of individual interference counts and the aggregated interference count for various scenarios

5/3 Results 6/2 Results

5 kW 10 kW

Licence Area Case study 1

Case study 2

Case study 1

Case study 2

Case study 1

a) Campbelltown 1157 1157 1154 1157 4310

b) Katoomba 207 207 207 207 1076

c) Lithgow 1791 1791 737 1791 806

d) Total (a+b+c) 3155 3155 2098 3155 6192

e) Aggregated licence area 3013 3013 1956 3013 6014

(e-d) 142 142 142 142 178

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Appendix APlanning parametersTowards the completion of the main report the TSC provisionally agreed to revise some of the planning parameters and these revised planning parameters are also shown in Table 10 alongside the standard planning parameters.

Table 10 Planning parameters

Parameter Standard planning parameters

Revised planning parameters

Location variation standard deviation

5.5 4.0

Protection Level 3A (FEC = ½) No change (NOC)

Receiver antenna height for interference modelling

10 m NOC

Rx antenna gain – mobile

-5 dBd -10 dBd

Height gain (1.5 m to 10 m)

13 dB 10 dB

Location availability 99% NOC

Time variability for interfering signal

1% NOC

Co-channel protection ratio

15 dB 12 dB

Minimum field strength for mobile reception (10 m agl)

63 dBµV/m 60 dBµV/m

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Appendix BInterference calculation settings The following parameters were used in the interference analysis for the revised planning parameters. The four main settings that have been revised are the standard deviation, E Min. Median, E Min. Equiv. and protection ratio. E Min. Equiv. is calculated from the E Min. Median, the standard deviation, and location probability. The bold values are the changed values from the previous or ‘standard planning parameters’

CHIRplus DAB network processor and other settings - revised planning parametersCalculation Mode WiMaResult Type CovRes_Freq. Band Band IIIReceiver Ht 10 mE Min. Median [dBuV/m] 50.7E Min. Equiv. [dBuV/m] 60.0E Minimum Lock [dBuV/m] 28.0Location Probability 99.00DAB Mode Mode IWin_To [us] 0.0Win_Tg [us] 246.0Win_Tu [us] 1000.0Sigma [dB] 4.0Receiver Sync. Main FocusSum. Proc. Wanted T-Log-NormalSum. Proc. Interf. T-Log-NormalAntenna Discr. NoPolarisation Discr. NoUser Protection Ratio Yes – [12 dB]Guard Interval DABUse User EMin No

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Appendix CDifferential affected populationsTable 11 Matrix M of interactions between licence areas. (Revised planning parameters and Reduced Power - CRC predict model, 9 Sec DEM)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

ARM BTH BEG CAM CBR COM DUB GOS GLB GDH KAT KEM LIT MUD MUS NEW NOW ORA PAR SYD TAM TAR WAG WOL YNG

1 ARM 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 6224 0 7116 0 52 1167 341 0 0 0 0 9506 1249 0 0 0

2 BTH 0 0 3 3513 266 0 2191 544 788 6 6515 0 39657 3732 850 6359 498 63846 1147 90459 42 0 16 712 1389

3 BEG 0 3 498 24 9330 41609 0 0 14947 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 26826 2 0 144 0 0 0 3758 65

4 CAM 0 3513 24 0 71 0 0 77062 1392 0 451429 0 225613 3088 1376 32979 189208 6316 0 2638960 0 26 0 235251 0

5 CBR 0 266 9330 71 0 12874 0 9 24543 0 207 0 489 0 0 0 5839 1083 75 906 0 0 4813 135 3538

6 COM 0 0 41609 0 12874 428 0 0 2376 0 58 0 30 0 0 0 2683 2 0 5 0 0 1676 31 133

7 DUB 0 2191 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1497 0 0 270 8500 875 0 0 23118 3571 23 197 0 0 0 132

8 GOS 3 544 0 77062 9 0 0 0 32 0 76227 25 16597 780 10398 294106 1789 452 0 1180566 61 736 0 9922 0

9 GLB 0 788 14947 1392 24543 2376 0 32 22 0 1573 0 2741 15 0 0 12956 1681 36 4690 0 0 553 1343 962

10 GDH 6224 6 0 0 0 0 1497 0 0 4 0 21 47 638 3679 452 0 64 4 0 22169 56 0 0 0

11 KAT 0 6515 0 451429 207 58 0 76227 1573 0 0 0 340927 1679 1820 19647 28445 4039 0 2114742 0 12 58 131984 178

12 KEM 7116 0 0 0 0 0 0 25 0 21 0 6 96 0 539 3045 0 0 0 19 338 93342 0 0 0

13 LIT 0 39657 0 225613 489 30 270 16597 2741 47 340927 96 0 10436 6722 22698 24182 13819 76 1587026 213 650 3 28392 477

14 MUD 52 3732 0 3088 0 0 8500 780 15 638 1679 0 10436 0 6085 16542 276 4500 720 92799 808 16 3 22 339

15 MUS 1167 850 0 1376 0 0 875 10398 0 3679 1820 539 6722 6085 96 113750 278 1272 0 19079 17351 3053 0 491 0

16 NEW 341 6359 0 32979 0 0 0 294106 0 452 19647 3045 22698 16542 113750 0 581 4317 0 253256 14795 49258 0 4854 0

17 NOW 0 498 26826 189208 5839 2683 0 1789 12956 0 28445 0 24182 276 278 581 10 1719 0 501270 0 0 29 362621 109

18 ORA 0 63846 2 6316 1083 2 23118 452 1681 64 4039 0 13819 4500 1272 4317 1719 0 17524 76214 84 0 1549 680 24409

19 PAR 0 1147 0 0 75 0 3571 0 36 4 0 0 76 720 0 0 0 17524 12 0 0 0 632 0 2548

20 SYD 0 90459 144 2638960 906 5 23 1180566

4690 0 2114742 19 1587026 92799 19079 253256 501270 76214 0 1458 76 342 0 1927631 116

21 TAM 9506 42 0 0 0 0 197 61 0 22169 0 338 213 808 17351 14795 0 84 0 76 0 389 0 0 0

22 TAR 1249 0 0 26 0 0 0 736 0 56 12 93342 650 16 3053 49258 0 0 0 342 389 0 0 60 0

23 WAG 0 16 0 0 4813 1676 0 0 553 0 58 0 3 3 0 0 29 1549 632 0 0 0 0 0 26292

24 WOL 0 712 3758 235251 135 31 0 9922 1343 0 131984 0 28392 22 491 4854 362621 680 0 1927631 0 60 0 0 0

25 YNG 0 1389 65 0 3538 133 132 0 962 0 178 0 477 339 0 0 109 24409 2548 116 0 0 26292 0 44