5G New Radio (NR) network deployment in Non-Stand Alone (NSA) mode means that 5G networks rely on the control plane of existing Long Term Evolution (LTE) modules for control functions, while 5G modules are only dedicated to the user plane tasks, which could also be carried out by LTE modules simultaneously. The first deployments of 5G networks are essentially using this technology. These deployments enable what is known as E-UTRAN NR Dual Connectivity (ENDC), where a user establish a 5G connection simultaneously with a pre-existing LTE connection to boost their data rate. In this paper, a single Federated Deep Reinforcement Learning (FDRL) agent for the optimization of the event that triggers the dual connectivity between LTE and 5G is proposed. First, single Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) agents are trained in isolated cells. Later, these agents are merged into a unique global agent capable of optimizing the whole network with Federated Learning (FL). This scheme of training single agents and merging them also makes feasible the use of dynamic simulators for this type of learning algorithm and parameters related to mobility, by drastically reducing the number of possible combinations resulting in fewer simulations. The simulation results show that the final agent is capable of achieving a tradeoff between dropped calls and the user throughput to achieve global optimum without the need for interacting with all the cells for training.

Future generations of mobile networks are expected to contain more and more antennas with growing complexity and more parameters. Optimizing these parameters is necessary for ensuring the good performance of the network. The scale of mobile networks makes it challenging to optimize antenna parameters using manual intervention or hand-engineered strategies. Reinforcement learning is a promising technique to address this challenge but existing methods often use local optimizations to scale to large network deployments. We propose a new multi-agent reinforcement learning algorithm to optimize mobile network configurations globally. By using a value decomposition approach, our algorithm can be trained from a global reward function instead of relying on an ad-hoc decomposition of the network performance across the different cells. The algorithm uses a graph neural network architecture which generalizes to different network topologies and learns coordination behaviors. We empirically demonstrate the performance of the algorithm on an antenna tilt tuning problem and a joint tilt and power control problem in a simulated environment.

The performance of uplink synchronous WCDMA systems for low dispersive environments is evaluated at network level. The capacity increase is computed for the particular case of UMTS, taking into account the impact of effects like the code shortage, the number of receiver antennas, the penetration rate, and the use of soft handover. This is done theoretically and by means of a dynamic simulator, which considers more realistic conditions. Theoretical calculations match the simulation results. According to the results generated for speech service, the main problem in uplink synchronous WCDMA systems is the code shortage. For Pedestrian A environments with the most realistic conditions uplink synchronous WCDMA provides a 9.6% capacity gain. However, a very high potential exists for situations where this code shortage can be solved, i.e. 35.8% capacity gain assuming no code restriction.