Performance enhancement of CDMA cellular systems with augmented antenna arrays

The use of base station adaptive antenna arrays is an attractive way to increase the capacity of code division multiple access cellular systems. In this paper, a system with an adaptive minimum redundancy array (MRA) at the base stations is proposed. This system uses the high-resolution signal angle of the arrival estimation algorithm, ESPRIT, in conjunction with array augmentation techniques, and linear least squares adaptation. For the MRA, we propose to use virtual array elements at the locations where there is no sensor element. All real and virtual sensor outputs are weighted and combined to extract the desired signal components and suppress interference. To simplify the evaluation of the interference from adjacent cells, the concentric circle cell geometry is employed in place of the common hexagonal cell geometry. The performance of the proposed system is quantified by comparison with the omnidirectional antenna, and the adaptive uniform linear array (ULA) with the same number of elements and same array aperture, using realistic simulations. It is shown that, for a four-element array, there is about a 4- and a 1-dB improvement in the despread output signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio of the proposed system over the omnidirectional antenna and the conventional ULA, respectively