| An overview of the mobile system/network architecture with Wideband Code Division Multiplexing Access (WCDMA) air interface is highlighted. The main network parameters are first introduced. The WCDMA network planning and dimensioning process is then described, with emphasis on the link budget, coverage and capacity calculations for a specific quality of service (QoS). A cooperative graphical and algorithmic technique is developed to efficiently compute the optimal network load factor and cell radius. The optimum solution of coverage and capacity calculations result in the optimal cell size, and thus the minimum number of Base stations (BTs) required for a given geographical region. Then, applying a modified (energy-based) Self Organization Map (SOM) algorithm, an optimization for BTs positions is achieved as a computational solution to the dimensioning process. As a case study of scale, we apply the developed WCDMA network planning and dimensioning process for a specific quality of service to a test regional area, namely, the Janzour region with an area of 17.38 km2 and 100,000 in population. The introduced process is implemented for three different services using software environment developed in MatLab. The promising results provide an example of the applicability of the developed planning and dimensioning process. |
