A Comparative Capacity/Coverage Analysis for CDMA Cell in Different Propagation Environments

Abstract

In the design of cells in mobile communication systems, path loss prediction models play an important role and have been the subject of the study for some time (M.F. Ibrahim and J.D. Parsons, IEE Proceedings, Vol. 130, No. 5, 1983). This paper presents the analysis of two main factors that affect the capacity bounds in a UMTS cell for different propagation models. These are the (i) interference levels at Node B, which increases with the number of active users, and (ii) the limited sending power of the user equipment (UE) which may not be able to send signals with enough power to reach Node B with the required received power level due to path loss. The aim of this paper is to analyse the capacity/coverage of the uplink of UMTS system in different propagation environments (free space, suburban, urban, dense urban, rural) and derive the capacity bounds for the UMTS cell. The capacity bounds have been extracted based on the extended COST-231 Hata model (http://cost.cordis.lu/src/whatiscost.cfm). COST-231 Hata is an extension of the Okumura–Hata model which covers the higher frequencies (G.L. Stuber, “Principles of Mobile Communications,” Kluwer, 1996) necessary for WCDMA. The basic model describes the propagation loss in an urban environment, but a number of correction factors can be applied to extend its application to a broader range of environments. The analysis takes into account a number of capacity influencing factors such as the CDMA code non-orthogonality, the inter-cell interference, imperfect power control, and different service specific factors. The simulation results show the effect of different system and varying environmental parameters upon the system's capacity in different environments. The results clearly demonstrate that it is too optimistic to rely on studies based on free space assumptions.