Downlink soft handover gain in UMTS networks under different power control conditions

The downlink soft handover gain is analysed in UMTS networks under three different power control situations: without power control, with perfect power control and with imperfect power control. The results show that although power control in the downlink direction is not as crucial as it in the uplink direction, it does have a significant influence on the downlink soft handover gain. The downlink soft handover gain will be overestimated without considering the power control and underestimated without considering the imperfection of the power control process.