Dynamic adaptation of mobile network coverage

1. A method of adapting radio coverage area of a mobile network, comprising:

at mobile network provider equipment (PE), receiving, for each of a plurality of common-category user equipment (UE) active within the mobile network, communications indicative of UE capability, UE location, and UE quality of service (QoS);

correlating, for each common-category UE, contemporaneously received UE location and service information indicative of a threshold level of service to derive therefrom category-specific service edge locations;

determining, using said category-specific service edge locations, corresponding category-specific coverage gaps; and

automatically adapting network node equipment such that said category-specific coverage gaps are reduced in size.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said common-category UE comprises at least one of UE of the same type, UE of the same capability, and UE operating in the same operating mode.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said category-specific service edge locations are associated with one or more of the following categories: UE type, UE capability, and UE operating mode.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein said common-category UE comprises UE of the same make and model.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said UE communications indicative of UE QoS comprise one or more of Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio (SINR), Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), and Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ).

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said UE communications indicative of UE QoS comprise one or more of Packet Data Channel (PDCH) Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio (SINR), Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), and Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), modulation supported for a given SINR, Block Error Rate (BLER), UE sensitivity, tracking area, and neighboring sectors.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein automatically adapting network node equipment comprises adapting one or both of node equipment configuration and node equipment antenna patterns.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein automatically adapting network node equipment comprises adjusting azimuth or tilt of one or more antennas associated with the node equipment.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising automatically invoking a topology update routing in response to a determination that one or more category-specific coverage gaps exceed a threshold coverage level.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising automatically invoking a topology update routing in response to a determination that one or more category-specific capacity gaps exceed a threshold coverage level.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

identifying, for each remaining category-specific coverage gap, respective available candidate cell node locations; and

for each category-specific coverage gap, performing the steps of:

(a) selecting a next available candidate cell node location;

(b) updating a model of the mobile network to include a cell node operating at the candidate cell node location;

(c) determining, using the model, a reduction in the category-specific coverage gap attributable to the cell node operating at the candidate cell location; and

(d) repeating steps (a)-(c) if the category-specific coverage gap exceeds a threshold coverage level.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the threshold coverage level comprises any of a no-service gap exceeding 0.5 km and a low-service gap distance exceeding 1 km.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the threshold coverage level comprises any of a no-service gap exceeding 0.5 km and a low-service gap distance exceeding 1 km.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein:

said model of the mobile network includes, for each coverage area to be serviced by a cell node, a determination of expected path loss from the cell node equipment to each of a plurality of sub-areas forming the coverage area, each sub-area being associated with any respective parameters impactful to signal propagation therethrough, each sub-area having associated with it a respective path loss determined as the summation of the expected path loss of all sub-areas between the cell node and the sub-area for the lowest loss path of a signal therethrough.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein each sub-area comprises a 1 m by 1 m sub area.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein parameters impactful to signal propagation are determined for each sub-area using one or more of clutter information, terrain information, clutter height information and building materials information.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein parameters impactful to signal propagation further comprise weather and time information.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein said PE comprises at least one of a mobility management entity (MME), a Serving Gateway (SGW), and a Home Subscriber Server (HSS).

19. Network provider equipment configured to communicate with elements of a mobile network to adapt radio coverage area associated with the mobile network elements, the network provider equipment comprising compute and storage resources configured for:

receiving, for each of a plurality of common-category user equipment (UE) active within the mobile network, communications indicative of UE capability, UE location, and UE quality of service (QoS);

correlating, for each common-category UE, contemporaneously received UE location and service information indicative of a threshold level of service to derive therefrom category-specific service edge locations;

determining, using said category-specific service edge locations, corresponding category-specific coverage gaps; and

automatically adapting network node equipment such that said category-specific coverage gaps are reduced in size.

20. A computer implemented method of adapting radio coverage areas associated with a mobile network, the method comprising:

at mobile network provider equipment (PE), receiving, for each of a plurality of common-category user equipment (UE) active within the mobile network, communications indicative of UE capability, UE location, and UE quality of service (QoS);

correlating, for each common-category UE, contemporaneously received UE location and service information indicative of a threshold level of service to derive therefrom category-specific service edge locations;

determining, using said category-specific service edge locations, corresponding category-specific coverage gaps; and

automatically adapting network node equipment such that said category-specific coverage gaps are reduced in size.