Experimental analysis of a CDMA adaptive system performance

Adaptive antenna arrays have been regarded as a key solution for increasing the spectral efficiency and improving the system performance in 3G and 4G mobile communication systems. Although the implementation of adaptive antennas is mainly investigated in the base transceiver station (BTS), it is interesting to evaluate their performance at the mobile level. The paper analyzes the results of propagation measurements, carried out at 1.9 GHz, in a code division multiple access (CDMA) system with a triangle planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) array, not only in signal transmission, but also in reception, with the aim of acquiring a suitable prototype that can be applied to adaptive antenna systems. Different wireless environments, such as suburban, indoor, and woodland are used, with line-of-sight (LOS) and nonline-of-sight (NLOS) scenarios. The analysis of results is based on attenuation prediction and comparisons with the received signal by a traditional monopole that is still much used in handsets.