A novel WCDMA uplink capacity and coverage model including the impact of non-ideal fast power control and macro diversity

This paper presents a novel WCDMA uplink capacity and coverage model that considers the impact of non-ideal power control and macro diversity. The model includes an advanced link-to-system interface, which describes the average transmit power increase and the required average E_b/N₀ as functions of both the relative strength of the links within the active set and the power control margin. The interface is used in a static WCDMA system simulator to obtain quick estimates of the WCDMA uplink capacity and coverage. Using the advanced model, the impact of limited output power and macro diversity on these estimates can be captured more accurately. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that system level aspects must be considered when estimating system capacity and coverage.