Uplink Coordinated Multi-Point in field trials and ray tracing simulations

Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) detection and transmission promises great improvements in cellular network coverage and throughput. To make full advantage of CoMP, however, appropriate radio planning is required that considers decoding of UEs at clusters of multiple BSs. Therefore, planning tools need accurate models that capture multi-cell propagation characteristics. This paper presents the analysis of uplink joint detection CoMP using ray tracing (RT). The main contribution is a comparison of RT simulation results with those of transmission experiments obtained through field trials. For this purpose, the testbed was modeled in a RT simulator. Measured and simulated results were evaluated for conventional and joint detection.