Practical Considerations of HSDPA Performance

The performance of high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) services following deployment can present challenges because of the different nature from the earlier R99 radio bearer and new lessons can be learned with regards to its proper operation and optimization This paper presents an analysis of the performance of HSDPA in realistic deployments. Different aspects from the technology have been studied through lab and field testing, including the behavior of link adaptation, packet scheduler, mobility and power allocation mechanisms. The results from the tests show that link adaptation and dynamic power allocation (DPA) are probably the biggest contributors to HSDPA performance, while the impact of the proportional fair scheduler (PFS) is somehow limited. Also, special attention has to be the paid to indoor users as strong multipath interference can present an important performance degradation in certain locations.