On the potential of traffic driven tilt optimization in LTE-A networks

Performance and efficiency of a cellular network can be enhanced by properly adjusting the antenna tilt setting. Antenna tilt is one of the most important radio parameters that determines the service coverage boundary and level of inter-cell-interference in cellular systems. Moreover, tilt tuning is an effective technique in radio network optimization to effect a better load balance among cells for efficient utilization of spare radio resources. The variability of user traffic distribution makes it more challenging to operators to ensure the required service capacity and quality with acceptable capital and operational expenditures. Active Antenna System (AAS) features promise the ability to flexibly handle system capacity by adapting the orientation of the antenna beam. In this paper, the potential performance gains of tilt optimization for differently placed user traffic concentrations are investigated. Simulation results show that users at traffic hot spot areas suffering from resource sharing can achieve significant performance gains from traffic oriented tilt optimization.