A method for planning and optimizing the configuration of a radio access network which comprises base stations and receivers and employs a mobile radio technology that allows and/or enforces use of multi-antenna types at said base stations and receivers, wherein each of said multi-antenna types comprise a plurality of single antenna elements, the method comprising:
- defining a planning/optimizing area;
- obtaining a three dimensional model of the environment for said area;
- obtaining a set of transmitter positions in three-dimensional (3D) space;
- defining receiver positions in 3D space;
- determining, for each receiver position, a scalar metric which represents a capacity gain resulting from applying a multi-antenna type or multi-antenna type configuration instead of a single antenna at said transmitter and receiver positions, by means of a ray tracing algorithm which is performed between said transmitter positions and said receiver positions using said three dimensional model of the environment for said area;
- wherein for a multi-antenna type comprising spatially separated single antenna elements, said scalar metric for each receiver position is determined by assessing a propagation path matrix, wherein rows of the matrix correspond to number of single antenna elements of a transmit multi-antenna type and columns of the matrix correspond to number of single antenna elements of a receive multi-antenna type at a receiver position, and the matrix is populated with a number of dominant and spatially resolvable propagation paths found by limiting said ray tracing algorithm to finding propagation paths that include a small number of reflections per path between a spatial bin of the transmit multi-antenna and a spatial bin of the receive multi-antenna, each spatial bin representing a spatially resolved effective activity sector of a single antenna element of the respective multi-antenna type derived from a directional diagram of the multi-antenna type, wherein said scalar metric has assigned a first value if at least one row or column in said propagation path matrix is populated by at least two elements, indicating a degree of spatial diversity, and said scalar metric has assigned a second value if at least two rows and at least two columns in said propagation path matrix are populated by at least two elements, indicating a degree of spatial multiplexing;
- and wherein for a multi-antenna type comprising single antenna elements which are separated by different polarization directions, said scalar metric for each receiver position is determined by detecting in said ray tracing algorithm if there is a line-of-sight relationship between a spatial bin of a transmit multi-antenna and a spatial bin of the receive multi-antenna at said receiver position, each spatial bin representing a spatially resolved effective activity sector of a single antenna element of the respective multi-antenna type derived from a directional diagram of the multi-antenna type, wherein said scalar metric has assigned a third value if there is a line-of-sight relationship between a spatial bin of the transmit multi-antenna and a spatial bin of the receive multi-antenna, and has assigned a fourth value if there is no line-of-sight relationship between a spatial bin of the transmit multi-antenna and a spatial bin of the receive multi-antenna.