Achieving a high uplink capacity and coverage by using multicarriers in 3G-WCDMA systems

The main aim of this paper is to evaluate, theoretically and by simulation, how much uplink capacity and coverage can be enhanced by using multi-carriers in 3G-WCDMA systems. Our analysis demonstrates that the rise of capacity by adding carriers to the system is practically proportional to the number of added carriers and the effect of adjacent channel interferences could be neglected (about 10³ per carrier capacity loss). In the case of system coverage shortage, adding carriers could be also used by operators to improve coverage. Indeed, when the system is middling loaded, the addition of a second carrier allows sharing equitably of load among the carriers and so increases the network coverage.