The impact of the radio network planning and site configuration on the WCDMA network capacity and quality of service

The 3^rd generation cellular systems will offer services with higher bit rates compared to today´s networks and therefore for an operator it is of utmost importance to exploit all possible resources to improve the capacity and quality of service of the radio network. The scope of this paper is to demonstrate with simulations how careful radio network planning can improve the network capacity and quality of service (QoS). Furthermore, it is demonstrated how the site configuration expansions can support the network capacity growth. Example results of omni-, three-, four- and six sectored site configuration simulations are presented including four different antennas and various different tilts. Furthermore a test case is shown to demonstrate the effect of a mast head amplifier (MHA) in the WCDMA uplink