Performance of receive diversity and LMMSE chip equalization in WCDMA HSDPA network

Abstract

More advanced receiver structures than the conventional single antenna Rake can be used to improve the signal-to-noise (SNR) ratios, which is especially beneficial in order to utilize the high bit rates provided by the HSDPA concept in Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) network. In WCDMA system, orthogonal Walsh---Hadamard sequences are used as channelization codes. In frequency-selective fading channels the orthogonality of channelization codes disappears and intra-cell multiple access interference (MAI) arises. In order to mitigate the effect of MAI, chip-level equalization has shown to be a simple and effective solution. The effectiveness of chip equalization, however, degrades at the cell borders where the inter-cell interference dominates rather than MAI. Dual antenna reception is a straight-forward solution to mitigate that performance drop. In this paper, we present an analysis of the expected gains of advanced receivers over conventional single antenna Rake receiver in realistic situations by using a dynamic WCDMA system-level tool. Considered advanced receivers include single and dual antenna Linear Minimum Mean Squared Error (LMMSE) chip-level equalizers and dual antenna Rake receiver. The network performance with advanced receivers is studied also from a more practical point of view by assuming that the penetration of advanced HSDPA terminal receivers is gradually increased in the network.