On Managing Dynamic Traffic Hotspots in WCDMA Networks

Abstract:
This paper evaluates the impact of static and dynamic hotspots on the performance of a WCDMA network and provides certain guidelines and mechanisms in order to manage in an appropriate way the use of radio resources under non-homogeneous traffic spatial distributions. First of all, the impact of the geographical location of a static hotspot has been analysed for the forward link. Then, dynamic hotspots (i.e. hotspots that move following a certain mobility pattern) have been studied, indicating how the hotspot movement affects on the network performance. Moreover, a pilot power adjustment algorithm that equalises the base station transmission power of the hotspot cell and its adjacent cells has been proposed and analysed. The improvement provided by this pilot power adjustment algorithm has been evaluated in terms of base station transmission power, transmission power of pilot channel, dropping probability and rate of handovers per user.