On the sensitivity of the capacity enhancement of a TDMA system with adaptive multibeam antennas

The paper presents results for the likely capacity improvement when an adaptive multibeam antenna is used in conjunction with air interface parameters akin to the DCS1800 system. The analysis investigates the possible capacity enhancement whilst taking into account parameters such as power control, number of available handover channels, radiation pattern, radio channel characteristics and different frequency reuse patterns. The results show that a substantial capacity improvement can be achieved with adaptive antennas and also underline the sensitivity of the capacity upon several operational parameters. Finally, based on observations made from the simulation results, a more efficient architecture which fully supports onward beamforming on the handover process, is proposed