What is Cell Breathing and why?

The cell coverage shrinks as the loading increases, this is called cell breathing.

In the uplink, as more and more UE are served by a cell, each UE needs to transmit higher power to compensate for the uplink noise rise. As a consequence, the UE with weaker link (UE at greater distance) may not have enough power to reach the NodeB – therefore a coverage shrinkage.

In the downlink, the NodeB also needs to transmit higher power as more UE are being served. As a consequence UE with weaker link (greater distance) may not be reachable by the NodeB.

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