Predictive Capacity Planning for Mobile Networks—ML Supported Prediction of Network Performance and User Experience Evolution

Network performance prediction is crucial for enabling agile capacity planning in mobile networks. One of the key problems is predicting evolution of spectral efficiency in growing network load conditions. The main factor driving network performance and spectral efficiency is reportedly the Channel Quality Indicator (CQI). In this paper, the performance of different Machine Learning (ML) models were examined, and XGBoost was selected as the best performing model. Furthermore, to improve modeling accuracy, several features were introduced (operating frequency band, Physical Resource Block (PRB) utilization in surrounding cells, number of surrounding cells within a radius, heavy data factor and higher order modulation usage). The impact of these features on CQI prediction were examined.