Cell tiering algorithms for 3G networks

Interference sharing typical of WCDMA systems, the multitude of services supported by 3G networks, ranging from low to high bit rates, and non-optimal base station placement represent a big challenge for network operators. Radio resource management techniques can be used effectively to face this problematic situation. In particular, cell tiering is a radio resource management technique proposed to improve network performance in terms of capacity, coverage and quality of service. It consists in clustering users having commonalities, e.g., from the radio link perspective, and in assigning them to different carriers, improving in this way the efficiency in managing radio resources. Different cell tiering algorithms may be implemented on the base of the parameters adopted for user clustering. This paper analyzes the performance of two proposed path loss based cell tiering algorithms. The analysis has been performed by means of a dynamic simulator implemented in visual C++ that works in a real and urban propagation environment. The performance obtained by applying cell tiering algorithms is compared with a classical architecture, where users are randomly assigned to the carriers allocated. Simulation results show better performance when cell tiering is applied.