RF Optimization of WiMAX Systems

WiMAX systems are being deployed in novel frequency bands often presenting challenges in the manner of reflections, shadowing, etc. Experts can meet many of these challenges when they choose the initial RF settings in a system, such as antenna orientations, downtilts, and transmit power. Once these settings have been chosen, it is a labor intensive process to improve them. However, significant gains in resource allocation efficiency can be made by doing so. In order to reduce the labor cost, we have developed a tool to automate the process of "optimizing" system RF attributes. This system is currently in field testing. We describe the nature of the optimizer and the results obtained from laboratory testing.