Implementation of Particle Swarm Optimization Technique for Enhanced Outdoor Network Coverage in Long Term Evolution Network in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

This paper describes the development of optimized model for urban outdoor coverage in Long Term Evolution (LTE) network at 2300 MHz frequency band in Port Harcourt urban region, Nigeria. Signal attenuation and fluctuation remain amongst the major channel impairments for mobile radio communication systems. This arises as a result of model incompatibility with terrain and Line of Sight (LOS) obstruction of the channel signals. Some path loss models such as Okumura-Hata, COST 231, Ericsson 999, Egli and ECC-33 models were evaluated for suitability and compared with the modified model for the environments. The models were based on data collected from LTE base stations at three geographical locations in Port Harcourt namely- Rumuokoro, Eneka and Ikwerre roads respectively. The simulation was implemented using MATLAB R2014a software. The modified model was further optimized with some selected parameters such as Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and Mean Absolute Error (MAE) using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) technique. The results obtained gave rise to 3.030dB for RMSE and 0.00162dB for MAE respectively. The results obtained from the PSO optimized model demonstrated a better performance which is suitable for cell coverage planning and smooth handoff processes.