Link reliability for IS-54/136 handsets with different receiver structures

We estimate link reliabilities for IS-54/136 digital cellular handsets operating with or without an equalizer in urban, suburban, rural, and mountainous environments. We define the reliability of a user's receiver as the probability that the bit error rate (BER) is less than some specified value. The probability is taken over all mobile positions in a cell area and the BER is averaged over multipath fading. Using a range of tools for modeling and simulation of the digital cellular link (transmitter, channel, and receiver), we present an extensive set of results showing the influence of: (1) receiver structures (differential detection with no equalizer, differential detection with selection diversity, or coherent detection with a medium-complexity equalizer); (2) joint distribution of the channel's RMS delay spread and average signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) (this distribution is based on an environment-specific model reported previously); and (3) vehicle speed (0-200 km/h). In all simulations, we assumed a two-path Rayleigh fading channel characterized by: (1) the delay between paths and (2) the ratio of power received from the first path to that from the second path (the RMS delay spread relates to these two parameters). For typical cell sizes, we find that imposing an equalization requirement in IS-54/136 handsets is overly stringent in all environments, except mountainous areas. For these environments, achieving high reliability requires either equalization or other measures, such as smaller cells, directional base-station antennas, or dual-diversity handsets.