Impact of EIRP accuracy on the predictability of throughput in LTE

With coming base station equipped with active antenna system (AAS) it is believed that the output power transmitted in the desired direction of a base station needs to be measured over the air. This in contrast to the conducted measurements performed today. The EIRP achieved by the beams radiated from a base station will affect the coverage and performance of a mobile network. The accuracy with what a base station will meet its declared EIRP in its beams may impact the predicted performance of the network and hence is an important parameter when planning a network. In this contribution we investigate how the variation of a declared EIRP affects the predictability of the performance of a mobile network. It is shown, by means of simulations, that the impact is reasonable if the EIRP variation is kept within 2.5 dB from a declared value.