Efficient Link-to-System Level Model for MIMO HSDPA

To assess the performance of future mobile network technologies, system level simulations are crucial. They serve to identify whether, and to which amount, predicted link level performance gains are obtained in an entire network. In this paper, we present a computationally efficient link-to-system level model for system-level evaluations of multiple-input multiple- output (MIMO) high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA), including double-stream transmit antenna array (D-TxAA) as a special case. The model is based on a fairly general structure which also allows for the mapping of more than two independent streams. We base the description on the post-equalization signal- to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) and represent it in a so- called "fading-parameter" structure, which leads to a nice split of the individual interference terms - which can be used e.g. for receiver optimization. These fading-parameters furthermore allow for a generation prior to the system level simulation itself, which reduces the computational burden significantly.