Multi-sector joint beamforming for pilot coverage optimization

Coverage optimization is an important task which directly affects the performance of cellular networks. The signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SINR) is a key metrics for evaluating coverage effect and its ability of resisting radio propagation condition variation. It is difficult to improve the ability of the pilot coverage of multiple sectors to resist environment variation simultaneously by using the existing methods. In this paper, a novel coverage optimization method based on multi-sector joint beamforming is proposed to maximize the minimum SINR of the sectors. An iterative algorithm is then developed to obtain antenna array excitation weights. Simulation results show that the performance of our algorithm is superior to that of the existing algorithm.