An Effective Optimization Algorithm for Configuring Radio Base Station Antennas in UMTS Networks

In this paper we propose an effective algorithm for configuring radio base station antennas in UMTS networks and optimizing the primary common pilot channel (CPICH) transmit power. The algorithm is based on tabu search and utilizes the advantage of a problem size reduction technique which allows us to detect the most critical parts of the service area where the coverage loss probability is very sensitive to the choice of antenna configuration in neighboring cells. We report numerical results for a test network originating from a realistic planning scenario for the city of Lisbon.