Power control with antenna array processing for UMTS

The benefits of employing antenna array processing for the interference limited UMTS system is the increase in the number of simultaneous users and the reduction in the transmitted uplink power. The joint power control and antenna processing offers maximum achievable capacity with lower transmission powers for the given target SINR (signal-to-interference+noise ratio). The analysis about possible achievements using antenna array processing, varying parameters such as the number of users in a microcell, processing gain and antenna array size for the given target SINR, has been done using a deterministic ray tracing model developed for urban microcells and considering two antenna processing cases, OC (optimum combining) and MRC (maximum ratio combining). The paper shows that the ratio between the target value and the processing gain is the most dominant factor for the antenna array performance in the power controlled environment, and that optimum transmitted powers obtained using OC are the least sensitive to the increase in the number of users, as compared to MRC and simple decorrelation on a single antenna element.