Self-­‐Op(misa(on

 of  Ver(cal  Sectorisa(on  in  a  

Realis(c  LTE  Network

EuCNC 2015, June 30, 2015, Issy les Moulineaux

Konstantinos Trichias, Remco Litjens (TNO)
Abdoulaye Tall, Zwi Altman (Orange Labs)
Pradeepa Ramachandra (Ericsson Research)
 Outline

§  Introduction
§  Vertical sectorization (VS)
§  SON for vertical sectorization
§  Futur evolutions of VS
§  Conclusions

2 SEMAFOUR
 Introduction (1/3)

§  SON – Self Organizing Network

ü Self-configuration (simplify  deployment)

ü Self-optimization (enhance  performance) MR
O
ü Self-healing (manage  faults)   M
LB
IC
IC
ES
§  SON deployment RA
C H
Op
ü Centralized SON (C-­‐SON)   CC t
O
ü Distributed SON (D-­‐SON)   CO
C
AN
R
 
Release  12

2013

LTE LTE-Advanced
Release 8,9 Release >=10

3 SEMAFOUR
 Introduction (2/3)

§  Vertical Sectorization (VS)

ü  Active Antenna System (AAS) technology: RF components integrated in the antenna
§  UE beam stearing
§  Separate Tx-Rx tilting
§  Separate carrier tilting
§  …
ü  VS: the antenna can support two beams: two sectors with distinct cell ID
ü  A capacity solution: network densification

4 SEMAFOUR
 Introduction (3/3)

§  Challenges for VS technology / deployment addressed in the SEMAFOUR

project

1.  Type of deployment: network-wide or per cell

2.  What are the conditions to (de)activate VS to ensure performance gains as a
function of
ü  Traffic distribution
ü  Time reactivity
ü  Propagation, in terms of Vertical Angular Spread (VAS)
3.  What power allocation between inner and outer cells should be performed?
4.  Design simple SON algorithms for
ü  VS (de)activation
ü  Power allocation
5.  What are possible evolutions of VS
ü  Virtual Sectorization (ViS)

5 SEMAFOUR
 Hannover scenario

§  LTE network, 1800 MHz, 20 MHz bandwidth

§  Environment: Urban and suburban
§  Propagation: ray tracing
§  Calculation zone: 5x7 km2, 63 sites
§  Performance evaluation zone: 3x5 km2, 36 sites
§  Traffic: Elastic

6 SEMAFOUR
 Vertical sectorizaton

§  Network-wide VS deployment

7 SEMAFOUR
 Performance results

§  Gain for network wide deployment

§  VS at cell 52 (most loaded cell) only

8 SEMAFOUR
 Impact of propagation on performance

§  Angular spread

Vertical Average - Average - 10th

Average - Ratio
Angular Average user percentile user
Inner Sector /
Spread throughput gain throughput gain
Total size
(degrees) from VS from VS
7 < AS < 10 50.91% 132.45% 26.14%
4 < AS < 7 26.27% 73.98% 12.28%
AS < 4 10.96% 40.03% 5.69%

9 SEMAFOUR
 (De)Activation VS SON

§  Analytical formulation

(K. Trichias et al. “Performance evaluation and SON aspects of Vertical
Sectorisation in a realistic LTE network environment”, IWSON-IV,
2014)

VS  O F F
0.8
VS  O N
0.6

outer
§  The decision boundary is calibrated using

ρ
0.4
measurements / simulations
–  When VS is off, estimation of inner and outer 0.2 Decision boundary for VS OFF
Decision boundary for VS ON
loads are required
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
ρ
inner

10 SEMAFOUR
 (De)Activation VS SON – a simplified approach

§ 

11 SEMAFOUR
 Power Allocation SON

§  Allocated power depends on both

–  The vertical sectorized cell
–  Its neigbboring cells

§  SON algorithm:

–  Neighboring mobiles are considered if their path-loss to the serving BS is

smaller than 115 dB

12 SEMAFOUR
 Results: capacity gain

§  Using VS (de)activation & Power Allocation SON

Gain  (high  load) No  VS Full  VS

Average 45% 9,50%
10th  percentile 140% 26%

13 SEMAFOUR
 Futur evolutions of VS: Virtual sectorization (ViS)

§  Generate a beam – virtual sector anywhere in the cell

§  Technological challenges
–  Antenna optimization with high gain and low sidelobes
–  SON for resource allocation / interference management
–  Adapt beam location to traffic localization

“Virtual-secorization: design and self-optimization”, in IWSON-V 2015

z 40 40
E plane H plane

30 30

20 20
Antenna gain (dB)

dz 10 Antenna gain (dB) 10

θ
φ y
−φ 0 0

x
-10 -10

dx -20 -20
0 50 100 150 200 -100 -50 0 50 100
θ φ

14 SEMAFOUR
 Conclusions

§  SON solutions can

–  enhance VS performance:
§  (de)activation and power allocation SON
–  allow selective VS (de)activation when conditions are present

§  Further promising evolution of AAS technology

–  Virtual sectorization / small cells

15 SEMAFOUR