Directional power-based admission control for WCDMA systems using beamforming antenna array systems

A directional power-based admission control (AC) scheme is proposed for base stations deploying beamforming antenna arrays. The proposed AC algorithm is a natural extension of the conventional power based AC scheme for cells using standard sector antennas. The directional scheme takes the load per beam/direction into account in the AC decision, so the cell load is controlled in accordance with the spatial filtering gain provided by using beamforming antenna arrays. The scheme is tested by means of Monte Carlo simulations in a multicell wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) network, where users with different bit rates are present. The obtained results demonstrate that the directional power based AC scheme allows a higher traffic load in cells using beamforming antenna arrays without jeopardizing the stability of the network. Application of a four element antenna array is found to provide a capacity gain of a factor 2.7 for a network with many low bit rate users, while the gain is reduced to a factor 2.3 for traffic scenarios with a mixture of high and low bit rate users.