Performance evaluation of smart antenna concepts and shared channel transmission in 3G mobile communication systems

In this work we investigate the influence of smart antenna concepts in the downlink of third generation mobile communication systems (3G) like UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) when packet scheduled transmission over downlink shared channels (DSCH) is carried out. We consider hexagonal site structures that are subdivided in three or six subsectors or cells. For the three sector case we investigate smart antenna concepts that use antenna arrays of two and four antenna elements. We illuminate beampointing and fixed beam switching and assume transmission of delay tolerant data such as E-mail or download applications utilising shared channels. Users are scheduled to shared code resources in a time multiplexed manner, where proportional fair and throughput fair scheduling algorithms are investigated. Results are presented in terms of average user throughput figures obtained from system level simulations. A significant increase in system packet data throughput shows when smart antenna concepts with four antenna elements are applied.