Comparison and Extension of Existing 3D Propagation Models with Real-World Effects Based on Ray-Tracing

The next generation of cellular network deployment is heterogeneous and temporally changing in order to follow the coverage and capacity needs. Active Antenna Systems allows fast deployment changes by cell shaping and tilt adaptation which have to be controlled in self-organized manner. However, such kind of automated and flexible network operations require a Self Organizing Network (SON) algorithm that works based on network performance parameters being partly derived from the radio measurements. Thus, appropriate radio propagation models are not only needed for network planning tools but also for simulative lab tests of the developed SON algorithm controlling the flexible deployment changes enabled by Active Antenna Systems. In this paper, an extension of the existing 3D propagation model is proposed in order to incorporate the propagation condition variation effects, not considered so far, by changing antenna beam orientation like antenna tilting or when users are distributed in the third dimension (height) in multi-floor scenarios. Ray tracing based generated propagation maps that show the realistic propagation effect are used as 3D real world reference for investigation and model approval.