On the UMTS-HSDPA in High Altitude Platforms (HAPs) Communications

In this paper, the performance of HAPs (high altitudes platforms) UMTS HSDPA (high speed downlink packet access) is studied for different scenarios and two directions (0deg and 30deg) within the cell. The studied network is assumed to have 61 ground cells. It is conclude that, for urban zone users, the effective range is lower than the effective range for users in rural zones. It is noticed that in rural zones, the HSDPA mode can support the modulation 16QAM when cells are not fully loaded. For fully loaded rural cells, the 16QAM modulation scheme with code rate of 7/8 can not be supported. Also, it is noticed that, in urban zones, HSDPA mode can support 16QAM with code rate of frac12 and QPSK modulation schemes when cells are not fully loaded. For fully loaded urban cells, only QPSK with code rate of frac12 can be supported. It is noticed that, HSDPA multi users with 16QAM modulation scheme can be supported when cells exist in rural zones and are not fully loaded.