Combined performance of packet scheduling and smart antennas for data transmission in EGPRS

Abstract

The capacity of GERAN is expected to be limited by interference, parricularly in urban areas, and by the quality of senice (QoS) requirements demanded by the users. Smart antenna arrays employing beam-forming techniques, commonly known as adaptive antennas (AA), are an eifident technology in mitigating interference in urban areas with low azimuth spread. In EGPRS, the packet data service o f GERAN, resource scheduling is responsible for multiplexing users on shared physical channels in order to best fulfill QoS requirements. By using more efficient scheduling algorithms, the resulting QoS is enhanced and, ultimately, it may be exchanged for capacity. In this work, the QoS and capacity gains provided by an AA system and two scheduling algorithms in several EGPRS system configurations are shown. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that, when combined, a tighter reuse scheme, a base station AA system, and an enhanced scheduling algorithm can result in a capacity gain o f up to approximately 450% over the reference scenario.