UMTS radio network evaluation and optimization beyond snapshots

This paper is concerned with UMTS radio network design. The task is to reconfigure antennas and the related cells as to improve network quality. In contrast to second generation GSM networks, interference plays a paramount role in the design of third generation radio networks. A recent compact characterization of a radio network through a linear equation system allows to assess cell load and interference. This characterization is based on user snapshots and is generalized here to average traffic intensities. This allows to overcome the notorious difficulties of snapshot-based network optimization approaches. A mixed-integer programming model for the network design problem is recalled that is based on user snapshots and it is contrasted with a new network design model based on the average coupling formulation. Exemplarily focusing on the particularly important problem of optimizing antenna tilts, computational results are presented for a fast local search algorithm and for the application of a MIP solver to both models. These results demonstrate that the new average-based approaches outperform state-of-the-art snapshot models for UMTS radio network optimization.