Evaluation of methods for determining the mobile traffic distribution in cellular radio networks

Locating the mobile traffic distribution is performed by comparing measured field strength samples with predicted field strength values from a radio network planning tool. The convergence of three approaches has been investigated: Standard Deviation Method, Least Mean Squares Method, and Gauss Probability Method. Improvements like call-by-call evaluation have been introduced to reduce calculation time and to improve the accuracy of the statistical evaluation of the mobile traffic distribution. The methods were verified using field-strength samples and corresponding position data of field measurements made with a vehicle within a mobile network. It has been shown that the accuracy of determining the mobile traffic distribution in this way strongly depends on the reliability of field strength predictions made by a radio network planning tool. With the methods presented in this paper, the creation of traffic databases with a high resolution and the detection of mobile network areas with high traffic load-so-called hot spots-becomes possible.