Coverage improvement for 5G new radio wireless communication network, such as for over-shooting cells

A method comprising:

• determining a first geographic location, an azimuth, and a beamwidth of a sector antenna of a serving cell in a cellular network;
• determining a second geographic location of a mobile device associated with a call served by the serving cell;
• determining a search area comprising an offset in degrees above and below the azimuth of the sector antenna;
• determining whether there is a first neighbor cell in the search area;
• adding the first neighbor cell to a list of eligible neighbor cells in response to determining that there is the first neighbor cell in the search area;
• determining whether there is a second neighbor cell in an expanded search area;
• adding the second neighbor cell to the list of eligible neighbor cells in response to determining that there is the second neighbor cell in the expanded search area;
• determining a first distance comprising an average distance from the serving cell to one or more closest neighbor cells in the list of eligible neighbor cells, wherein the first distance is determined based on the first geographic location and a geographic location of each of the closest neighbor cells;
• determining a second distance comprising a distance from the serving cell to the mobile device, wherein the second distance is determined based on the first and second geographic locations;
• when the search area is approximately equal to the beamwidth and no cells have been identified in the search area, so that the list of eligible neighbor cells is empty, determining a default inter-site distance;
• determining that the serving cell is an over-shooter cell when the second distance is larger than the first distance or when the second distance is larger than the default inter-site distance;
• and,
• automatically applying or causing to be automatically applied an electrical down-tilt or a decrease of a transmit power in response to determining that the serving cell is an over-shooter cell.

A system comprising:

• at least one hardware processor;
• and
• at least one non-transitory memory, coupled to the at least one hardware processor and storing instructions, which, when executed by the at least one hardware processor, cause the system to:
• determine a first geographic location, an azimuth, and a beamwidth of a sector antenna of a serving cell in a cellular network;
• determine a second geographic location of a mobile device associated with a call served by the serving cell;
• determine a first distance comprising an average distance from the serving cell to one or more closest neighbor cells in a list of eligible neighbor cells,
• wherein the first distance is determined based on the first geographic location and a geographic location of each of the closet neighbor cells;
• determine a second distance comprising a distance from the serving cell to the mobile device,
• wherein the second distance is determined based on the first and second geographic locations;
• when the search area is approximately equal to the beamwidth and no cells have been identified in the search area, so that the list of eligible neighbor cells is empty, determine a default inter-site distance;
• determine that the serving cell is an over-shooter cell when the second distance is larger than the first distance or when the second distance is larger than the default inter-site distance;
• and,
• automatically apply or cause to be automatically applied an electrical down-tilt or a decrease of a transmit power in response to determining that the serving cell is an over-shooter cell.