Comparison of models for WCDMA downlink capacity assessment based on a MORANS reference scenario

Third generation wireless telecommunication networks based on WCDMA technology are being deployed across the world. Since the downlink is likely to be the limiting direction, it is crucial for network engineers to assess the downlink capacity of WCDMA radio cells. In this paper, we revisit a semi-analytical capacity evaluation model involving snapshot simulation. We further develop an alternative approach for assessing cell capacity, which is a generalization of recent analytical dimension reduction techniques for cell load computation. The second approach works under average load rather than snapshots, which enables a quick approximation of the simulation results. We investigate the relationship between the two approaches. We demonstrate how the MORANS (mobile radio access reference scenarios) reference datasets can be used to compare different approaches on a common basis. Based on a MORANS real-world scenario, we compare the capacity of different cells under varying soft handover parameters. The results show how cells´ capacities vary under realistic data. As the approximative method is quite accurate, we can conclude that no snapshot simulation is needed for capacity analysis in our setting.