Applications of smart antennas in cellular networks

Many cellular telephone networks are in the midst of migrating from analog to digital radio air interfaces. This paper examines the network performance of smart antenna architectures designed for current dual-mode AMPS and CDMA cellular networks. The proposed smart antenna approach is implemented as a non-invasive add-on to existing base stations with the goal of addressing many of the fundamental performance limitations that exist within these networks. Traditionally smart antennas are used to improve capacity by increasing traffic channel carrier-to-interference (C/I) ratios, resulting in tightened frequency reuse for FDMA networks. In this paper the focus is turned instead to non-traditional methods for phased-array antenna deployments to improve capacity in CDMA networks through traffic load balancing, handoff management and network-wide interference control.