Performance of Cell-Sweeping Using 256-QAM, 3D Antennas and SU-MIMO in 3GPP LTE

Ensuring robust and uniform network coverage is crucial for mobile network operators, particularly at the cell edges, where interference remains a persistent challenge. Traditional solutions such as network densification are complex, costly, and prone to increased interference. This paper presents the performance of recently proposed Cell-Sweeping base stations deployment in a typical 4G LTE network with Single User-Multiple Input Multiple Output (SU-MIMO) operation, use of higher-order modulation schemes, i.e. 256-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (256-QAM), as well as using 3D antenna radiation patterns. By dynamically sweeping the antenna radiation patterns, cell-sweeping aims to significantly enhance the cell-edge performance while at the same time also harmonises the distribution of throughput in the whole cell. System-level simulations conducted using the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) configurations reveal significant performance gain of cell-sweeping of up to 147% improvement in cell-edge throughput observed under open-loop spatial multiplexing, i.e. Transmission Mode 3 (TM3) in 3GPP LTE compared to conventional (i.e. non cell-sweeping) cellular network deployment. The results demonstrate that integrating cell-sweeping with advanced modulation and MIMO configurations is feasible and significantly improves Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio (SINR), throughput, and Channel Quality Indicators (CQI) distribution, particularly in dense urban environments. These findings highlight the potential of cell-sweeping as an effective and simpler deployment strategy for future radio access networks.