Lab: Analyze and improve throughput for an underperforming cell

Lab Scenario Overview

In this lab, you are given a 5G NR cell on n78 (100 MHz, SCS 30 kHz, 64T64R Massive MIMO) delivering only 180 Mbps average DL throughput — approximately 60% below the expected 450 Mbps. The KPI data shows: SINR distribution with mean 14 dB (reasonable for the environment), CQI histogram predominantly at 10-12 which should map to MCS 20-25, but actual MCS distribution peaks at 14-16. PRB utilization is only 45% so congestion is not the issue. MIMO rank distribution shows 72% rank 1 and 23% rank 2 — very low for a 64T64R system. The secondary carrier n78 is configured but has only 30%…