A study of wireless LTE infrastructure growth in the Matanuska-Susitna Bourough

Abstract

A wireless telecommunications company is targeting to have seamless coverage and minimum download speeds of 10Mbps for users connected to their LTE network over the span of the next 3 years in the Matanuska-Susitna area. The current network performance was explored and it was determined to have non-contiguous coverage with average download speeds of 5.876Mbps, not meeting the requirements. To meet the requirements, techniques for coverage and capacity improvement were explored. Coverage improvement techniques include new base stations, adding lower band spectrum, and using antenna-integrated RRH. Capacity improvement techniques include new base stations, adding additional spectrum, and LTE enhancement features. The wireless telecommunications company is licensed to operate in PCS A/B/E blocks, AWS B block, and 700MHz A block for a total of 51MHz bandwidth. Recommendations based on the requirements and techniques to improve both coverage and capacity are listed below. l. Add five new base stations with existing lOMHz bandwidth of AWS, SMHz bandwidth of 700MHz spectrum, 20MHz bandwidth of PCS spectrum, and antenna-integrated RRH 2. Add 5MHz bandwidth of 700MHz spectrum, 20MHz bandwidth of PCS spectrum, and antennaintegrated RRH to existing base stations 3. Enable LTE-Advanced features including carrier aggregation and 4x4 MIMO to improve data rates This solution will provide seamless coverage and expand data volume capacity from 155.751 TBytes to601.910 TBytes per month allowing data rates to be above 10Mbps until the end of December 2021, after the three year requirement. Implementing the recommendations will allow the wireless telecommunications company to meet and slightly exceed requirements of seamless coverage and minimum download speeds of lOMbps in the Matanuska-Susitna area.