Uplink WCDMA capacity and range as a function of inter-to-intra cell interference: theory and practice

UMTS is one of the new emerging 3G cellular standards for global wireless data telecommunications. Whereas voice services have dominated the second-generation cellular traffic, data services are predicted to become a major part of global personal mobile communications. An essential element to any commercial case for 3rd generation networks is the range and equivalent capacity of a UMTS network. This paper reviews some simplistic uplink capacity estimation methods and issues associated with these metrics using an example 37 cell, 111 sector network. Following this example “real” network dimensioning data is used to contrast the differences and sensitivity of the simplistic uplink capacity and range estimation technique outlined by the use of a numerical static system simulator