Abstract—The development of Ibu Kota Nusantara (Nusantara Capital City, IKN), Indonesia’s new capital, necessitates a robust telecommunication infrastructure to support government initiatives and operations. This study presents a 5G network planning framework utilizing Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) architecture for the Kawasan Inti Pusat Pemerintahan (Core Government Administrative Area, KIPP-1A) region of IKN. Through systematic capacity and coverage dimensioning, optimal infrastructure requirements were determined to support the immediate government needs. The implementation utilized a 2300 MHz frequency with 30 MHz bandwidth, with analysis forecasting user growth from 76,695 in 2024 to 94,644 by 2028. Capacity planning calculations indicated a requirement for 17 sites to accommodate the projected traffic demand of 83,667.97 Mbps, while coverage planning determined 12 sites would suffice from a signal propagation perspective. Network simulation results demonstrated excellent performance metrics: a mean Reference Signal Received Power (SS-RSRP) of −73.13 dBm with 96% optimal coverage, a mean Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio (SS-SINR) of 15.55 dB within a satisfactory range, and a mean throughput of 138.58 Mbps, exceeding the requirements of fifth-generation mobile networks. The proposed architecture comprises 1 Centralized Unit (CU) and 6 Distributed Units (DUs), supporting 17 radio sites. This research presents a strategic and technical plan for efficient telecommunications deployment in the IKN environment, striking a balance between coverage, capacity, and implementation complexity.

Keywords—5G network planning, network dimensioning, Open RAN, telecommunication infrastructure


Cite: Putri Rahmawati, Aisyah Novfitri, Lia Hafiza, Muhammad Adam Nugraha, and Syifa Maliah Rachmawati, “5G Open RAN Network Planning for Indonesia’s New Capital City: A Capacity and Coverage Analysis," Journal of Communications, vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 560-572, 2025.

Copyright © 2025 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).