HSDPA user throughput improvement by other-to-own-interference reduction and power optimization

Multi-carrier High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) technology, in Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service Cellular Networks (UMTS), allows efficient Radio Resource Management (RRM) of spreading codes, transmission power, and interference rise per carrier. However, poor radio network planning and configuration parameters can limit HSDPA system capacity, measured in terms of average user throughput. In this paper, we analyze the downlink throughput degradation problem that can occur as the traffic increases from low to moderate levels. A real network is studied and, in order to increase the capacity, we reduce the other-to-own-interference by optimizing antenna tilts and power optimization of physical channels. The results show that proper network planning significantly improves the average user throughput (up to 55% improvement) and contributes to the system RRM to exploit high spectral efficiency per carrier.