2021 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing

6-11 June 2021 • Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Extracting Knowledge from Information

2021 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing

6-11 June 2021 • Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Extracting Knowledge from Information

Technical Program

Paper Detail

Paper IDSS-3.5
Paper Title OPTIMIZING COVERAGE AND CAPACITY IN CELLULAR NETWORKS USING MACHINE LEARNING
Authors Ryan Dreifuerst, University of Texas at Austin, United States; Samuel Daulton, Yuchen Qian, Paul Varkey, Maximilian Balandat, Sanjay Kasturia, Anoop Tomar, Ali Yazdan, Vish Ponnampalam, Facebook, United States; Robert Heath, North Caronlina State University, United States
SessionSS-3: Machine Learning in Wireless Networks
LocationGather.Town
Session Time:Tuesday, 08 June, 14:00 - 14:45
Presentation Time:Tuesday, 08 June, 14:00 - 14:45
Presentation Poster
Topic Special Sessions: Machine Learning in Wireless Networks
IEEE Xplore Open Preview  Click here to view in IEEE Xplore
Virtual Presentation  Click here to watch in the Virtual Conference
Abstract Wireless cellular networks have many parameters that are normally tuned upon deployment and re-tuned as the network changes. Many operational parameters affect reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio (SINR), and, ultimately, throughput. In this paper, we develop and compare two approaches for maximizing coverage and minimizing interference by jointly optimizing the transmit power and downtilt (elevation tilt) settings across sectors. To evaluate different parameter configurations offline, we construct a realistic simulation model that captures geographic correlations. Using this model, we evaluate two optimization methods: deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG), a reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm, and multi-objective Bayesian optimization (BO). Our simulations show that both approaches significantly outperform random search and converge to comparable Pareto frontiers, but that BO converges with two orders of magnitude fewer evaluations than DDPG. Our results suggest that data-driven techniques can effectively self-optimize coverage and capacity in cellular networks.