4.8. Automated Site Selection and RF Planning

Planning site locations and RF settings of the network infrastructure is a fundamental problem for wireless operators. Apart from site locations, the specific RF settings that need to be planned and optimized include base station transmission powers and antenna parameters like azimuth, tilt and height. The goal is to minimize the amount of deployed infrastructure while maintaining appropriate levels of service, in terms of coverage, capacity and quality. The optimization can be achieved by several means that include manual and automatic processes. This section focuses on an automated RF planning process.

Automated site selection and RF planning are Self-Planning functions that represent an essential part of the SON network management paradigm. The selection of the optimum site location and the optimum RF configuration is challenging due to the inherent complexity of the requirements concerning radio modeling and optimization, particularly for Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) or Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems². Generally speaking, automatic optimization³ of any engineering system, including site configuration in mobile wireless networks, consists of three domains: