System capacity from UMTS smart antenna concepts

Exploitation of the spatial dimension is a significant issue for third generation wireless networks. The main benefits expected are emission reduction and system capacity enhancements. There are several approaches to exploit the spatial dimension of the mobile channel. Concepts suggested are higher order sectorization (6 sector sites), fixed beam switching concepts (a number of fixed beams covers the area of a sector) and adaptive beamforming (user specific antenna patterns are evaluated). This paper documents the results of a system level investigation considering different antenna concepts when applying power control in UTRA FDD (UMTS terrestrial radio access, frequency division duplex) downlink. Furthermore, load control algorithms based on power rise evaluation and user elimination applying a stepwise removal algorithm are also taken into account. Simulations have been carried out for different data services utilizing dedicated channels. The investigations were accomplished within 3GPP-UMTS boundary conditions.