UMTS radio network multiparameter control

Five key UMTS radio network parameters are simultaneously optimized with an automatic control method. The parameters relate to admission control, power control, handover control, and coverage. The optimization is guided by heuristic expert-defined rules, which apply specific trade-off policies and statistics of poor quality calls, blocking rates, power and interference levels, and terminal measurements to qualify the parameter values. The method was validated using a dynamic WCDMA system simulator with a deployment of 17 cells in Helsinki city center. The same parameter value was applied in each cell as the network formed of a uniform cell structure. The method was shown to produce convergence of parameters and stable operation. The obtained results showed that the method improved overall network performance in comparison to fixed planned default values. The capacity of network was improved close to 20% with slightly decreased but still acceptable quality of calls. Keywords— UMTS, radio network planning, optimzsation, call quality, congestion, admission control, power control, handover control, coverage, system simulation