An enhanced proposal in neighbor list planning for LTE SON radio access networks

Nowadays, a coexistence of 2^nd Generation (2G), 3^rd Generation (3G) and 4^th Generation (4G) networks is being witnessed. Due to this situation, it became evident the need for Self-Organizing Networks (SON), which aims to automate most of the associated radio planning and optimization tasks. Within SON, this paper presents the latest work around an algorithm that optimizes the Neighbor Cell List (NCL) for Long Term Evolution (LTE) evolved NodeBs (eNBs). The algorithm is based on intra-site distance, its antenna orientation (azimuth/elevation), radiation pattern and overlap areas between cells. The research initial steps were already published (Duarte, D.; Vieira, P.; Rodrigues, A.; Martins, A.; Oliveira, N.; Varela, L., “Neighbour List Optimization for Real LTE Radio Networks,” Wireless and Mobile, 2014 IEEE Asia Pacific Conference on, pp.183,187, 28-30 Aug. 2014).