fast algorithm for large-scale umts coverage planning with soft handover consideration
Coverage planning by means of controlling cell Common Pilot Channel (CPICH) power is an important task in deploying UMTS networks. In addition to determining coverage, CPICH power heavily influences the amount of Soft Handover (SHO). Non-uniform cell CPICH power allows for significant power saving and thereby higher capacity for traffic channels. However, optimizing non-uniform CPICH is challenging in terms of computational effort, if the resulting coverage pattern is required to satisfy a desired level of SHO. We present a very fast algorithm for this planning problem. The algorithm has utilized the fact that SHO is strongly correlated with cell overlap. Using overlap as a very good approximation of SHO, the algorithm can compute a near optimal coverage pattern within a few seconds even for large networks. Next, the solution is further polished to deal with SHO accurately. Simulation results show that our solution strategy is able to perform non-uniform CPICH optimization very time-efficiently, making it possible to tackle large scale UMTS coverage planning under SHO consideration.
umts coverage soft handover