The impact of antenna-array receivers on the reverse link performance of CDMA 2000 1xEV high rate packet data systems

CDMA2000 1xEV standard, also known as IS-856, is a next generation solution to high-speed wireless Internet access, In this paper, we explore the possibility of improving the reverse link performance (in terms of coverage and data throughput) of IS-856 using adaptive antenna array receivers. Specifically, we consider the effect of array size, configuration and discuss how we can tradeoff the antenna gains via adjustment in MAC layer protocols. We look at spatially, separated antenna arrays as well as pairs of cross-polarized (X-pol) antennas. The key difference between our study and many existing smart-antenna results is that we consider the dynamics associated with power-control and upper-layer algorithms in addition to the physical-layer interactions. Our results are based on a comprehensive simulation environment that incorporates realistic channel models and IS-856 physical and MAC layer processing.