The different novelties of this Ph.D. dissertation have been published in several research contributions, whose details are indicated for each chapter in the following. During the development of this Ph.D. thesis, several contributions to the European COST Actions 273 and 2100 were done and these are also indicated.
The total number of publications is 1 book section, 4 journal papers, 8 conference papers and 8 contributions to COST Actions.
Chapter 3
1 book section. 2 conference papers. 2 COST 273 contributions.
• [Ce06] L.M. Correia (ed.), Mobile Broadband Multimedia Networks. Tech- niques Models and Tools for 4G, 1st ed. London, UK: Elsevier (Academic Press), 2006. Section entitled: Base Station Parameter Configuration. • [GLR04] M. Garc´ıa-Lozano, and S. Ruiz, “Effects of Downtilting on RRM
Parameters,” in Proc. of IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC 2004), Barcelona (Spain), Sep. 5–8, 2004.
• [GLRHO04] M. Garc´ıa-Lozano, S. Ruiz, R. Higuero, and J.J. Olmos “UMTS Network Optimisation: Impact of Donwtilted Antennas,” COST 273, Athens (Greece), Tech. Rep. available as TD(04)033, Jan. 26–28, 2004.
• [GLRS+03] M. Garc´ıa-Lozano, S. Ruiz, O. Sallent, F. Adelantado, R. Agust´ı, M.A. D´ıaz-Guerra, J. Montero, E. Gago, J.L. Miranda, and F. Castej´on “Analysing UTRA-FDD Pilot Power and Active Set Configuration in a Real Urban Sce- nario,” in Proc. of IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC 2003), Beijing (China), Sep. 7–10, 2003.
• [RSA+03] S. Ruiz, O. Sallent, R. Agust´ı, M. Garc´ıa-Lozano, F. Adelantado, M.A. D´ıaz-Guerra, J. Montero, E. Gago, J.L. Miranda “3G Planning by Using 2G Measurements,” COST 273, Barcelona (Spain), Tech. Rep. available as TD(03)073, Jan. 15–17, 2003.
The author participated in the MORANS (Mobile Radio Access Network Ref- erence Scenarios) [VB03; VBC+04] initiative. This activity was framed within the COST 273 Action and aimed at providing common system simulation environments so that research results and proposals from different researchers are comparable. In this context, several results derived from this chapter were also simulated and rechecked in the MORANS realistic scenario of Turin. These results can be found in 2 COST 273 contributions:
• [GLR05] M. Garc´ıa-Lozano, and S. Ruiz, “Effects of Donwtilt on the MORANS Real World Scenario of Turin,” COST 273, Lisbon (Portugal), Tech. Rep. available as TD(05)111, Sep. 10–11, 2005.
• [GLFR05] M. Garc´ıa-Lozano, P. Falavigna, and S. Ruiz, “Detailed UL/DL Analysis of MORANS Torino Scenario under Different Traffic Behaviour,” COST 273, Bologna (Italy), Tech. Rep. available as TD(05)022, Jan. 19–21, 2005.
Chapter 4
1 journal paper. 2 conference papers. 1 COST 273 contribution.
• [GLRO04a] M. Garc´ıa-Lozano, S. Ruiz, and J.J. Olmos, “Optimum Cell Bal- ancing for UMTS Inhomogeneous Traffic Distribution,” in Proc. of Interna- tional Symposium on Wireless Personal Multimedia Communications (WPMC 2004), Padova (Italy), Sep. 12–15, 2004.
• [GLRO04b] M. Garc´ıa-Lozano, S. Ruiz, and J.J. Olmos, “UMTS Optimum Cell Load Balancing for Inhomogeneous Traffic Patterns,” in Proc. of IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference Fall (VTC 2004 Fall), Los Angeles (USA), Sep. 26–29, 2004.
• [GLRO03b] M. Garc´ıa-Lozano, S. Ruiz, and J.J. Olmos, “CPICH Powers Op- timization by means of Simulated Annealing in an UTRA-FDD environment,” IEE Electronic Letters, vol. 39, no. 23, pp. 1676–1677, Nov. 2003.
• [GLRO03a] M. Garc´ıa-Lozano, S. Ruiz, and J.J. Olmos, “CPICH Powers Op- timization by means of Simulated Annealing,” COST 273, Paris (France), Tech. Rep. available as TD(03)103, May 21–23, 2003.
Chapter 5
2 journal papers. 1 conference paper. 1 COST 273 contribution.
• [GLACR07] M. Garc´ıa-Lozano, L. Alonso, F. Casadevall, and S. Ruiz,“Capacity and Coverage Tradeoff in WCDMA Environments with Repeaters Deploy- ment,” Wireless Personal Communications Journal, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 329– 342, Feb. 2007.
• [GLACR05a] M. Garc´ıa-Lozano, L. Alonso, F. Casadevall, and S. Ruiz,“Capacity and Coverage Tradeoff in WCDMA Environments with Repeaters Deploy- ment,” in Proc. of International Symposium on Wireless Personal Multimedia Communications (WPMC 2005), Aalborg (Denmark), Sep. 18–22, 2005. • [GLACR05b] M. Garc´ıa-Lozano, L. Alonso, F. Casadevall, and S. Ruiz,“Impact
of Repeaters Deployment on UMTS Admission Control,” COST 273, Lisbon (Portugal), Tech. Rep. available as TD(05)117, Sep. 10–11, 2005.
• [AGLC05] L. Alonso, M. Garc´ıa-Lozano, and F. Casadevall, “Feasibility Con- dition for the Uplink of a CDMA Multiservice Mobile Communications System with Repeaters”, IEEE Communications Letters, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 408–410, May 2005.
Chapter 6
1 journal paper. 1 conference paper.
• [GLAC+07] M. Garc´ıa-Lozano, L. Alonso, F. Casadevall, S. Ruiz, and L.M. Correia,“Enhanced Analysis of WCDMA Networks with Repeaters Deploy- ment,” IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 6, no. 9, pp. 3429–3439, Sep. 2007.
• [GLAC+06] M. Garc´ıa-Lozano, L. Alonso, F. Casadevall, S. Ruiz, and L.M. Correia, “On the Impact of Repeaters Deployment on WCDMA Networks Planning,” in Proc. of IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference Fall (VTC 2006 Spring), Melbourne (Australia), May 7–10, 2006.
Chapter 7
1 conference paper. 1 COST 2100 contribution.
• [GLSPR+07] M. Garc´ıa-Lozano, O. Sallent, J. P´erez-Romero, S. Ruiz, A. Gomez, and P.M. d’Orey, “Automated Up- and Downlink Capacity Balancing in WCDMA Networks,” in Proc. of IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference Fall (VTC 2007 Fall), Baltimore (USA), Sep. 30/Oct. 1, 2007.
• [GLRALOC07] M. Garc´ıa-Lozano, S. Ruiz, A. And´ujar-Linares, and N. Oller- Camaute, “Automatic Tuning of Soft Handover Parameters in UMTS Net- works,” COST 2100, Duisbrug (Germany), Tech. Rep. available as TD(07)344, Sep. 10–12, 2007.
Chapter 8
1 conference paper. 1 COST 2100 contribution.
• [GLSPRR08] M. Garc´ıa-Lozano, O. Sallent, J. P´erez-Romero, and S. Ruiz,“Performance Improvement of HSDPA/UMTS Networks through Dynamic Code Tuning,”
in Proc. of IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC 2008), Cannes (France), Sep. 15–18, 2008. • [GLR08] M. Garc´ıa-Lozano, S. Ruiz, “Study on the Automated Tuning of
HSDPA Code Allocation,” COST 2100, Wroclaw (Poland), Tech. Rep. avail- able as TD(08)410, Feb. 06–08, 2008.
Strategies for Enhanced
Radio Planning
2.1
Introduction
In the previous chapter it was briefly summarized how radio network planning has evolved along with access technologies and the requirements set by those. In the case of UMTS systems, new features appear and change how the problem must be addressed. In the first place, the close relationship between capacity and coverage implies that both must be studied as a whole and not sequentially, as it used to be in Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) based 2G networks. Indeed, effective coverage areas are inversely proportional to traffic load and the term cell breathing has been coined to describe the effect. Secondly, with the use of WCDMA and the implementation of new and very tunable RRM strategies, UMTS networks introduce an increased level of flexibility. A great deal of adjustable parameters allow operators to completely design its network to meet service level agreements. Even though this flexibility can be initially seen as an advantage, this is at the cost of a more complex planning. Operators are able to manage all aspects of the radio network, but several of those parameters simultaneously influence the system performance, they show interdependencies and a joint adjustment is not trivial.
Usually, vendors provide a set of default configurations, however these cannot be optimal for the particularities of operation of each cell. Therefore operators shall optimize them as one of the tasks of the planning process. Human made cell by cell modifications with the help of statistics from the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) subsystem is a usual practice. But achieving the combination of parameters that jointly maximize the network performance requires a more complex analysis. Since efficient network planning is of outmost importance, optimization techniques are mandatory to plan 3G/3.5G networks. These strategies aim at providing auto- matic optimization mechanisms that simplify the task and reduce time and costs.
They are included in what is called Automatic Planning or Automatic Optimization, being the first denomination preferred in this dissertation.
Given this, the chapter is organized in two sections. The first one gives an insight view on Automatic Planning strategies. This is done along two subsections, one devoted to the use of metaheuristics in radio network planning and the second one dealing with the parameters with a major impact on the outcome of the planning process itself. A review of the state of the art is done and existent challenges are explained. The second main section is focused on dynamic strategies and again the state of the art is revised in two differentiated points. The first one deals with the concept of Dynamic Planning and the second one with Automatic Tuning of RRM parameters. Open issues and challenges are indicated for both cases.