Impact of the Base Station Antenna Beamwidth on
Capacity in WCDMA Cellular Networks
Jarno Niemelä and Jukka Lempiäinen
Tampere University of Technology, Institute of Communication Engineering
P.O.BOX 553, FIN-33101 TAMPERE, FINLAND
jarno.niemela@tut.fi and jukka.lempiainen@tut.fi
Abstract –- In this paper the impact of the base station antenna
horizontal beamwidth on radio network capacity in WCDMA
cellular networks in the downlink direction is studied. Influence
of coverage overlapping and radio propagation environment
together with antenna beamwidth are also studied. A radio
network planning tool is used to simulate WCDMA macro
cellular network performance in urban and suburban area in
Tampere, Finland. By utilizing digital morphology and
topography information in the simulations reliable and practical
results were expected. The simulation results show that the effect
of the base station antenna horizontal beamwidth on capacity is
almost unremarkable in three-sectorised sites between 65° and
90° antennas. Meanwhile the capacity enhancement between 33°
and 65°/90° beamwidths in six-sectorised sites is significant.
Altogether, the results of this study yield for exact planning
guidelines of the base station antenna configuration for different
capacity needs.
I. INTRODUCTION
The demand of different mobile services in the 3rd
generation mobile communication systems, especially the
varying bit rates, will rise causing a need of more efficient
systems to be designed and thus also new challenges in the
field of radio network planning. European
Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) selected
Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) as a
multiple access technique for the radio interface in the 3rd
generation mobile telephone communication systems. This
new radio access technology changes the radio network
planning process and planning principles. Multiple access
schemes as TDMA and FDMA used in the 2nd generation
mobile communications systems make it possible to divide
different network planning phases more clearly into individual
parts because different frequencies are used at different time
moments. In WCDMA systems the same frequency is used
simultaneously in neighbour cells and interference should be
taken into account already in the coverage planning phase
because the sensitivity of the base stations depends on the
number of users and their bit rates (= cumulative interference).
Furthermore, coverage and capacity planning cannot be
separated into different phases because the coverage of a cell
is changing according to the amount of users (and their bit
rates) in a cell. This well-known phenomenon is called ‘cell
breathing’ and it shows that coverage and capacity depends on
each other. Hence, the downlink performance of coverage and
capacity depends heavily on the interference from the
neighbour cells. This other-cell interference (also called inter-
cell interference) in the downlink direction is moreover related
to the base station antenna configurations as beamwidth.
The simplest way to improve the capacity of a network is to
add more carriers. However, once all available carriers have
been used, other methods have to be utilized. In reference [1]
the following methods have been proposed for capacity
enhancements in WCDMA networks: transmit diversity,
beamforming, additional scrambling codes, increased
sectorisation and micro cells. From these methods
sectorisation is highly linked to the selection of the base
station antenna beamwidth because it plays an important and
crucial role in sectorisation. By a careful selection of antenna
beamwidth in different sectorisation cases interference leaking
to neighbour cells can be controlled at a certain level. The
reduction of the base station transmit power can be performed
due to higher gain of the sector antennas, and thus additional
power is left over for capacity increase. In contrast, more
interference is radiated in the direction of the main beam with
high gain sector antennas and also the coverage area may
diminish due to narrower antenna beamwidths forcing the base
station to rise its transmit power.
Downlink capacity equation for sectorised WCDMA
cellular network has been derived as a function of antenna
beamwidth in [2]. In consequence of this research an optimum
base station antenna beamwidth for WCDMA cellular network
has been found in relatively ideal conditions. The effect of
antenna beamwidth and sectorisation on capacity and coverage
are explored in [3] and [4]. Based on these simulations
narrower antenna beamwidth brings more capacity into
WCDMA network and additionally an optimum antenna
beamwidth exists for each site configuration. Narrower
antenna beamwidth has also brought capacity enhancements
and interference reductions in CDMA wireless local loop
systems in [5].
In this paper the effect of base station antenna beamwidth
on capacity in the WCDMA cellular networks is analysed. The
results are based on the simulations done in real propagation
environment. Various simulations with typical UMTS
antennas of different scenarios have been done. The
information of digital topography has been used in the the downlink direction based on carrier-to-interference ratio
simulations and also the effect of morphology information for (C/IC) and it can be defined by Equation (4),
different clutter types has been simulated. The main targets of
these simulations are 1
C Rγ R −γ
- to evaluate the impact of base station antenna horizontal = N
= N (4)
I 1
beamwidth as a function of base station transmit power,
- to analyse the impact of distance between base station sites
∑D γ ∑
n =1 n n =1
Dn
−γ

(coverage overlapping),
- to evaluate the practical capacity per site basis when the
impact of environment is taken into account and
- to analyse the impact of base station antenna configuration
(beamwidth and number of sectors) on the on capacity and
also on coverage.
II. THEORY OF THE DOWNLINK CAPACITY
In this section downlink capacity related functions as well
as the effect of antenna beamwidth on downlink load factor
are presented. Carrier-to-interference ratio (C/IC) in WCDMA
networks is considered and finally discussion about
propagation model and slope as well as the effects of the
environmental factors on propagation model are brought up.
The downlink load factor can be defined by the following
equation [6]
where R is the distance between the serving base station and
mobile and Dn is the distance between the nth interfering base
station and the mobile. The exponent of the attenuation of the
radio wave is denoted by γ. In the 2nd generation systems, e.g.
GSM, a certain (C/IC)–ratio has to be achieved for a proper
quality of speech and it is mainly determined by the frequency
reuse factor utilized in a network. In WCDMA systems all
cells are using the same frequencies and thus the interfering
base station can locate within the same distance as the serving
base station.
In Figure 1 an arbitrary situation is depicted where the
mobile is camped on the cell of antenna direction 90° of the
base station at centre. Because of wide antenna beamwidth
interference is leaking from adjacent cells thus rising the noise
floor at the serving cell and forcing the serving base station to
rise its transmit power.

N (E b N0 ) j
η DL = ∑υ j ⋅
W Rj
[( ) ]
⋅ 1−α j + i j (1)
j =1

where υj is the channel activity factor for jth user, Eb/N0 is the
required energy per bit divided by noise spectral density, W is
the system chip rate, Rj is the bit rate of jth user, αj is the
orthogonality factor and ij is the other-to-own-cell
interference. This parameter is different for each user because
it depends on the location of user. Required transmit power
PBS for a base station can be defined mathematically as a
function of downlink load factor [7]
N (E b N0 )j
N rf ⋅ L ⋅ ∑υ
j =1
j
W Rj (2)
PBS =
1 − η DL
Figure 1: Other-cell interference with 90° antenna beamwidth.
where Nrf is the noise spectral density and L is the average The situation is improved by narrowing the base station
path loss between base station transmitter and mobile receiver. antenna beamwidths in Figure 2. Thus, by utilizing narrower
When the downlink load factor saturates, the system antenna beamwidth other-cell interference is decreased due to
approaches its pole capacity and the required transmission less radiation power leakage to other cells and due to the fact
power approaches infinity. Equation (1) shows also that that the base station antenna main beam is directed more
orthogonality and interference are directly proportional to the precisely towards the mobiles. However, when narrowing
downlink load factor. Moreover, the total received interference antenna beamwidth too much it is possible that coverage
(noise + other users) is a function of load called interference thresholds can not be anymore exceeded.
margin (IM)
IM = −10 log10 (1 − η DL ) . (3)
Because WCDMA capacity is interference limited as
Equations (1) and (3) show it is crucial to control the base
station transmit power accurately. This power is controlled in
 Okumura-Hata propagation model was used as for a large
city environment with a path loss exponent of 3.5 and mobile
station heights were set to 1.5 m. Area correction factors (i.e.
altered propagation slope for each terrain type) were not
utilized in the first part of the simulation because one
objective of this paper was to simulate the effect of non-
homogeneous terrain on capacity. Coverage threshold in each
simulation case was demanded to be -90 dBm at least with
95% probability. The user profile consisted of a homogeneous
distribution of speech (8 kbit/s) users with activity factors of
60% in both directions (DL and UL). Soft/softer handover
gain was maximally 2.9 dB in the downlink direction. Power
control standard deviation was set to 1dB to illustrate the
effect of an unideal power control.
Three and six-sectorised base station sites were simulated.
In three-sectorised sites the selected horizontal half power
antenna beamwidths were 65° and 90° and in six-sectorised
Figure 2: Other-cell interference with 65° antenna beamwidth. sites 33°, 65° and 90°, respectively. Table 1 gathers the
essential simulation parameters used in simulations.
Interference is also decreased because of environment.
Radio wave attenuates in free space proportional to the square TABLE 1: SIMULATION PARAMETERS.
of distance r, i.e. 20 dB/dec in dB scale. Above the water the
attenuation does not differ much from free space attenuation Base Station
Maximum transmit power 43dBm
but in other terrain types (e.g. forest, open areas, buildings) Pilot power 33dBm
radio wave propagation slope changes typically between Common channel power 33dBm
25 – 40 dB/dec. Compared to homogeneous terrain, i.e. the Maximum transmit power per connection 40dBm
terrain is flat and the same terrain type covers the area, Noise figure 5 dB
different propagation slopes cause strong variations of the Mobile Station
coverage areas. In a certain direction a radio wave can Maximum transmit power 21dBm
Dynamic range 70dB
propagate for a long distance simultaneously causing Active set 6
interference to surrounding cells and moreover reducing the Power step size 0.5dB
capacity of a network. Required Ec/I0 -21dB
Noise figure 9 dB
3G service – Speech
III. SIMULATION PARAMETERS Downlink
- Eb/N0 8dB
The utilized static radio network planning tool uses Monte- - Activity factor 0.6
Carlo simulations. In the network simulation process mobiles Uplink
(also called users and terminals) are spread randomly - Eb/N0 6dB
according to created traffic raster over the area under - Activity factor 0.6
investigation. Required transmit powers in the network are Other
then computed iteratively for each mobile and base station. Slow fading standard deviation 8dB
Uplink noise rise 6dB
Morphology and topology information of the simulation area Orthogonality 0.6
were used in part of the simulations defined by a digital map Handover margin 3dB
of 5m x 5m resolution. The digital map included basic terrain Chip rate 3.84Mchips
types and also buildings of different heights. While Power control std deviation 1dB
investigating the effect of more accurate propagation model
the building vectors were used to give more realistic results. The capacity results are plotted as a function of required
base station transmit power that can be calculated from
The network consisted of a regular hexagonal grid of 10
base stations covering total area of 35 km2. The locations of (E b N 0 )DL,req ⋅ N terminal ⋅ L
PBS = (5)
the base stations were kept fixed (except in the coverage G
overlapping simulations where the simulation area was where (Eb/N0)DL,req is the required energy per bit divided by
diminished but the network layout remained the same). The noise spectral density ratio, L is the path loss between a base
base station antenna orientations were 60°, 180° and 300° for station and a mobile and G is the processing gain. The most
three-sectorised sites and 0°, 60° and 120°, 180°, 240° and interesting variable in this equation is Nterminal which is the
300° for six-sectorised sites in all simulations. The antenna noise received at the mobile. Nterminal is a function of
installation height at every base station site was constantly orthogonality, other-to-own-cell interference and noise figure
25 m.
of the mobile receiver and it describes the total interference
received by a mobile. Thus, comparing the needed transmit
powers between different site configurations the effect of
different antenna beamwidths can be clearly outlined.
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
In the first part of the simulations different base station
antenna horizontal beamwidths with different sectorisation
cases were simulated. Networks of three-sectorised sites were
already highly loaded with relatively low user densities when
in the networks of six-sectorised sites the load remained low
and thus the average required transmit power for the base
stations remained also low. The capacities of the different
simulation cases are presented as a function of transmit power
in Figure 3.
The capacity enhancement due to narrower antennas is
significant between 33° and 65°/90° beamwidths in six-
sectorised sites. The difference between 65° and 90° antennas
in three-sectorised sites is small even if the load and transmit
powers are higher. Moreover, sectorisation clearly enhances
the capacity of a network. Transmit power in three-sectorised
cases starts to run out a bit after 120 users per sector, while in
six-sectorised sites there is sufficiently power left. The curves
in Figure 3 show that capacity differences are getting higher
when the load of the network growths. In order to present the
effect of higher load all the six-sectorised sites were strongly
loaded in the second part of the simulation. The results of
loading are depicted in Figure 4.
Figure 3: Capacity (users per site) as a function of downlink transmit
power in three and six-sectorised sites.
The achieved capacity enhancement of 33° antenna
compared to 65° and 90° antennas is obvious already with low
base station transmit powers in Figure 4. The capacity
difference is even higher when the needed base station
transmit power (or load) is higher: base station transmit power
of 42 dBm in Figure 4 corresponds to approximately 70%
load. Capacity increase of six-sectorised network of 33°
antennas compared to network of 65° antennas is up to 20%
and even higher compared to network of antennas of 90°
beamwidth. The capacity difference between six-sectorised
and three-sectorised networks is 70 – 80% when comparing
base station transmission levels 40 – 42 dBm referring high
load situation in the network (Figures 3 and 4). The
enhancement of capacity is achieved due to smaller
interference level in a case of narrower base station antenna
beamwidth.
Figure 4: Capacity as a function of downlink transmit power per site in
case of six-sectorised sites of 33°, 65° and 90° antennas.
The impact of distance between the base stations i.e.
coverage overlapping and the impact of area correction factors
i.e. radio propagation environment on capacity was simulated
next. The impact of coverage overlapping was simulated by
diminishing the distance between the base station sites. While
2.0 km base station separation was used as a reference case,
the distances of 1.5 km and 1.0 km were chosen for these
simulations. All cases were simulated with six-sectorised sites
and with 33° antenna beamwidth. In all cases average
downlink transmit power was 41.5 dBm. Table 2 shows that
2.0 km distance between the base stations was best possible
from capacity and interference point of view in downlink. On
the other hand, 1.5 km configuration creates less load in the
network.
TABLE 2: THE IMPACT OF COVERAGE OVERLAPPING ( DISTANCE) ON RADIO
NETWORK CAPACITY, LOAD AND OTHER-TO-OWN CELL INTERFERECE WITH
EQUAL DOWNLINK TRANSMIT POWER.
Distance [km] 1.0 1.5 2.0
Capacity per site [users] 295 310 313
Load [%] 62.5 61 63
Other-to-own cell interference 0.55 0.50 0.49
Next, the area correction factors of average weighting of
-8.4 dB were added to the propagation model and new
simulations were done. The average base station transmit
powers were also adjusted to the same level as in reference
case. The load of the network was set to 60 – 70% and the
distance between the base station sites was 2.0 km.
Table 3 shows that the capacity of the reference case (no
area corrections) is slightly better than in the first part of the
simulations because the power control in this case was
assumed not to have deviation. Without and with area
correction factors the network was able to serve average 56.2
users per sector with 82.20% service probability and average
55.1 users per sector with 86.90% service probability,
respectively. The capacity of the network reduces when more
accurate propagation model is used and when non-
homogeneous radio propagation environment is taken into
account but the degradation is not enormous as seen from the
results. The growth of service probability is achieved due to
the improved coverage thus also rising interference level and
causing degradation of capacity.
TABLE 3: THE EFFECT OF AREA CORRECTION FACTORS (ACF).
Without ACF With ACF
Service Probability [%] 82.20 86.90
Capacity per sector [users] 56.2 55.1
Capacity per site [users] 337.3 330.6
Downlink TRCH power [dBm] 41.45 41.49
Finally coverage areas were studied based on the
simulations that were done for capacity evaluations. In three-
sectorised sites required transmit power of the base stations in
order to achieve 95% coverage at -90 dBm threshold level was
higher than in six-sectorised sites. The required transmit
power also decreased when a narrow antenna beamwidth was
utilized. The impact of different antenna beamwidths on
coverage areas was not as huge as in [3] where no digital
topography or morphology information was utilized.
Figure 5 depicts two different coverage schemes. In the
left-handed picture coverage areas of one six-sectorised site of
33° antenna beamwidth is presented and in the right-handed
picture a three-sectorised site of 90° beamwidth antennas.
Figure 5: Coverage schemas of two different sectorisation cases.
In this case the difference between the required base station
transmit powers was the highest. For six-sectorised sites the
required coverage threshold was achieved with 4 dB lower
power than for three-sectorised sites. Figure 5 shows also that
more interference is directed to other cells in six-sectorised
configuration but in contrast coverage near the base stations is
better (the darkest colour) and thus capacity is increased due
to sectorisation and narrowbeam antennas.
V. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
In this paper the impact of base station antenna horizontal
beamwidth has been evaluated by using a sophisticated radio
network planning tool for simulations which are based on a
real radio wave propagation environment defined by a high
resolution digital map. Simulation results show that the effect
of antenna beamwidth is less significant with low base station
transmit powers (low load) in the WCDMA radio network.
Furthermore, with higher transmit power (higher load) the
effect of narrower antenna beamwidth is more distinct even if
capacity increase due to ‘optimal’ antenna beamwidth is not
evident as other studies have been pointed out before.
Moreover, coverage area overlapping and environment (area
correction factors) increase interference and thus reduce
capacity. This reduction of 2 to 5% was expected to be higher
as it was shown in the results. Finally, it was presented the
number of users per site as a function of the required transmit
power and number of sectors. The increase of sectors in
WCDMA network brings clearly more capacity into network
as simulation results show.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Authors would like to thank European Communications
Engineering (ECE) Ltd for helpful comments concerning
simulation parameters and simulation environment, Nokia
Networks for providing NetAct Planner tool for simulations
and FM Kartta for providing a digital map.
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