Automatic location of base-stations for optimum coverage and capacity planning of LTE systems

Optimum base-station positioning in the framework of LTE wireless networks is not an easy task since there are several factors that need to be taken into account. The ever increasing demand for geographically inhomogeneous capacity, which has become the limiting factor in the network planning process, as well as the presence of relay nodes and mixed cell scenarios, must all now be considered along with the constraints and capabilities of the system. In this paper, the optimization problem for an LTE system is described and results are produced with a proposed partially combinatorial optimization algorithm. The optimization analysis is based on coverage, capacity and cost criteria. Example results are provided for a typical case study that give useful planning insights for LTE systems.