Network performance of transmit and receive antenna diversity in HSDPA under different packet scheduling strategies

This study addresses the performance of the high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) concept when transmit and/or receive antenna diversity techniques are used. Two branch space-time transmit diversity (STTD), closed loop mode-1 transmit diversity (CLTD), dual RAKE receivers at the user equipment (UE), and the combination of dual RAKE and CLTD are analyzed for round robin and proportional fair packet scheduling. These schemes are compared against a reference scenario with single antenna transmission and reception. In pedestrian-A channels at 3 km/h, the combination of CLTD and dual RAKE receivers results in a cell capacity gain of 123% for round robin, while the gain is reduced to 38% for proportional fair. For round robin, the throughput gain per UE is found to be significantly larger for UEs at the cell edge (up to 320%), compared to UEs close to the base station. The equivalent throughput gain per UE for proportional fair equals 115%.