Design and evaluation of ANR algorithm for LTE real scenario with high interference

The operation of mobile networks has three basic objectives to fulfil: quality-coverage-capacity, at a cost of efficient operation. Quality can be expressed as the network's ability to maintain a call or data session, which must be terminated at will by users. When the network is not able to fulfil this condition, dropped calls occur. To ensure quality and user mobility, it is necessary to design a proper neighbour cell list to allow transfer between cells. In this sense, the 3GPP standard considers the ANR (automatic neighbour relation) technique for LTE as an automatic method of defining neighbour lists that optimises network performance. Presented is a method to define an optimised neighbour cell list, which is designed and implemented in a real UMTS network of Telefonica within a high interference scenario, and which is easily extrapolated to the LTE network.