Network planning and dimensioning process in WCDMA

We describe a new procedure for WCDMA network planning and dimensioning, with emphasis on the link budget, coverage, and capacity calculations, for a specilic quality of service (QoS). A cooperative graphical and algorithmic technique is developed to efficiently determine the network load factor and, subsequently, the cell radius. The coverage and capacity calculations produce a feasible cell size, and thus the required number of Base stations (BTs) needed to cover a given geographical region. Subsequently, we apply a modilied (energy-based) Self Organization Map (SOM) computational algorithm to enable intelligent positioning of BTs in the given region. Finally, as a case study of scale, we apply the developed WCDMA network planning and dimensioning process for a specilic QoS to a test regional area.