Coverage and capacity Self-Optimisation in LTE-Advanced using Active Antenna Systems

Abstract

In order to enhance the Long Term Evolution (LTE) network performance, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) introduced Coverage and Capacity Optimisation (CCO) in the context of Self Organising Network (SON). Antenna parameters (i.e. azimuth, electrical tilt etc.) play a key role in CCO and have a significant impact on the users' Quality of Service (QoS). In this paper, a novel metric, to evaluate the cells performance, that consider several performance indicators, is introduced. Furthermore, a distributed CCO algorithm is proposed which has three distinct phases. The first phase is to determine the target cell, the second phase adjust the antenna parameters for the target and neighbouring cells and in the last phase the optimum antenna parameters for the target and neighbouring cells is determined. The simulation results show significant improvement in the overall network performance with the proposed CCO algorithm. In particular, the target cell average performance can be improved by 16.75%.