Use of Smart Antennas to Increase Capacity in Cellular & PCS Networks

Abstract

The chapter examines three different smart antenna architectures and their real-world performance in cellular and PCS networks. The first smart antenna is designed for cdmaOne^TM. (EIA-95) CDMA cellular networks, with the goal of addressing many of the fundamental performance limitations that exist within these networks. The smart antenna is implemented as a non-invasive add-on (i.e. an applique) to current cdmaOne^TM base stations, and improves capacity in CDMA networks through traffic load balancing, handoff management and interference control. Capacity improvements of greater than 50% have been achieved with the CDMA appliqué smart antenna through static and dynamic sector beam forming. The second smart antenna is designed as an integral subsystem embedded within specially adapted cdmaOne^TM and 3G cdma2000^TM base stations. The embedded architecture increases CDMA air link capacity by 100% to 200% through beam processing for each traffic channel. The third smart antenna, designed for current GSM networks, is implemented as an appliqué to existing base stations, and increases GSM air link capacity by 50% to 120% through increasing traffic channel carrier-to-interference (C/I) ratios, enabling increased fractional loading in frequency hopped networks.

Metawave Communications Corp.