Pilot pollution: detection (>3 cells above threshold) and resolution

What Causes Pilot Pollution

Pilot pollution is one of the most impactful coverage problems in mobile networks — it occurs when three or more cells are received at similar signal levels at the same location, preventing clean cell dominance. The UE can only be served by one cell, but the strong signals from other cells act as co-channel interference, dramatically reducing SINR and throughput. The standard detection criterion is: if 3 or more cells have RSRP within 6 dB of the serving cell at a given measurement point, that location has pilot pollution. The RSRP vs SINR scatter plot is the primary diagnostic tool —…