HARQ for WCDMA enhanced uplink: link level performance in SHO

This paper deals with the link performance of the enhanced uplink dedicated channel (E-DCH), a new concept currently studied in 3GPP for introduction in the WCDMA/UTRA-FDD standard. A key feature of E-DCH is the physical/MAC layer retransmission, employing soft combining of different versions of the same packet to improve the performance of the link. In order to evaluate the possible gain from this new feature, extensive link-level simulations are needed, which take into account even the effect of the needed side signaling on the overall performance. This paper presents results for some interesting cases, considering in particular the situation of a user in soft handover (SHO).