Modeling and Performance Evaluation of 3G CDMA Networks with Beamforming

Abstract

The second generation (2G) code-division multiple access (CDMA) IS-95A cellular network has been deployed for almost ten years. Although the system design rules and operating procedures for voice services are well established and understood, these rules and procedures need to be re-examined in light of several technology innovations. These innovations include the launch of third generation (3G) cdma2000 1× high-rate data services and the new research results in interference cancellation, antenna array and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technologies.We have built a 3G cdma2000 1× cellular simulator, which simulates the physical layer using MATLAB and networking layers using OPNET Modeler, to investigate various design issues of cdma2000 1× networks. This paper explores the use of a simple beamforming model and investigates the effectiveness of deploying antenna array techniques in cdma2000 1× networks. The capacity improvement for CDMA networks using antenna array techniques is evaluated under different deployment scenarios (voice versus data services and various number of antenna elements). Based on the performance evaluation results it is proposed to utilize beamforming as one of the elements in quality of service (QOS) provisioning for data services and to couple antenna arrays with dynamic soft handoff threshold adjustment for further improvement in the system capacity.