Handover is an essential radio management technique of mobile communication tornenable seamless communication while users move from one cell to another one. Tornmitigate impacts of interference on cell-edge users, third Generation (3G) supports softrnhandover where users can be simultaneously served by two or more cells, in addition tornhard handover, where a user is served by only one cell. The number of soft handoverrnusers and their active cells determine the degree of soft handover overhead. The softrnhandover overhead data for the year 2018 of Addis Ababa 3G network is 87% averagernoverhead, which is considerably beyond the maximum recommended value. This figurernindicates the requirement to optimize the soft handover overhead using the softrnhandover related network parametersâ€™ configurations. rnIn this thesis, soft handover overhead performance of the Addis Ababa 3G network isrnanalyzed. The spatial distribution of the overhead is visualized using data collected fromrnthe network management system. Furthermore, optimization of soft handover overheadrnis done through fine-tuning window add, pilot power, and electrical antenna down tilt.rnWe apply a heuristic algorithm for the optimization considering potential sets of valuesrnfor the optimization variables. Moreover, obtained results are compared with a resultrnobtained using existing default network configuration parameters. For the sample 3Grnsites network simulation, we use WinProp while we also use MATLAB and Google Earthrnfor soft handover performance analysis and visualization. rnSoft handover overhead performance analysis of 5 Radio Network controllers (RNCs)rnshows that the Addis Ababa network is within the range of 111 to 115% for the 90rnthrnrnpercentile. Sites in RNC4 using carrier three are selected for the simulation andrnoptimization as 5 to 21 more number of radio links used comparing with the other three carriers. After optimization, results show that soft handover overhead and networkrncapacity are considerably improved by fine-tuning the window add, pilot power, andrnantenna tilt parameters. For instance, soft handover overhead is reduced from 85.4 % torn57.7% and network capacity gain by 3.76% when using window add of 2 dB, pilot powerrnof 7.5%, and electrical antenna down tilt by 2 degrees. Soft handover overhead is reducedrnfrom 85.4 % to 46.6% and network capacity gain by 5.72% when using window add of 1.5rndB, pilot power of 5% and electrical antenna down tilt by 3 degrees.