An Innovative Simulation Tool for Advanced Signal Processing in UMTS Systems

Link-level simulations are essential in the design of UMTS communication systems. The large number of inter-dependent variables makes it impossible to derive easy design steps without an efficient modeling of the environments and the implemented reception schemes. In this paper, a novel tool for UMTS design is presented. The tool includes a fast C++ simulation engine and a complete 3GPP library to model the uplink transmission chain. As an example, a series of Monte Carlo performance simulations are presented in the paper for a UMTS Rake and S-PIC receivers with real channel estimation in a multi-path fading channel. A brief analytical description of the operation performed is also provided.