Title: Effect of repeaters on the performance in WCDMA networks

Authors: Panu Lahdekorpi, Jarno Niemela, Jukka Lempiainen

Addresses: Institute of Communications Engineering, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland. ' Institute of Communications Engineering, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland. ' European Communications Engineering Ltd., Espoo, Finland

Abstract: The target of this paper is to show the impact of repeaters on Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) system performance. Repeaters have been traditionally used in cellular mobile communication networks for temporary coverage extensions. However, deployment of repeaters in capacity-limited scenarios requires more careful radio network planning compared to the traditional approach for operation in coverage-limited environment. For the analysis, several system level simulations have been conducted together with actual field measurements. The measurements have been performed in order to complement and verify the simulations. The results of the simulations and field measurements reveal that a proper configuration of a repeater can provide a significant downlink gain in the cell capacity, which indicates the suitability of the repeaters also in capacity-limited environments. In addition, obtained outcomes show that repeaters can effectively improve cell dominance in pilot polluted areas, which has direct impacts on soft handover probabilities in the network. Finally, utilisation of repeaters might also improve the performance of the whole network by improving also the uplink direction.

Keywords: capacity; coverage; repeaters; wideband code division multiple access; WCDMA performance; wireless networks; mobile networks; radio networks; network planning; simulation; network design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMNDI.2007.013803

International Journal of Mobile Network Design and Innovation, 2007 Vol.2 No.1, pp.39 - 46

Published online: 28 May 2007 *

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