Performance of WCDMA system with space diversity and power control in slowly fading channel models

The performance of WCDMA technology with antenna diversity is considered by link level simulations using several different channel models. The used channel models are based on new radio channel measurement campaigns in urban and suburban type environments. For comparison purposes, simulations are also performed by using typical mobile radio channel models with low mobile speeds. Several antenna space diversity schemes have been considered and their performance assessed under noise limited conditions. In addition, the performance of the downlink SIR-based closed loop power control was studied within an accurate WCDMA radio link simulation tool. Finally, the bit error rate performance of the selected antenna diversity scheme was measured in laboratory tests using a hardware multipath channel simulator. According to the results the WCDMA system with dual antenna diversity combined with SIR-based closed loop power control can offer good performance in all the simulated channel models