Performance evaluation of adaptive antenna base stations in a commercial GSM network

Base stations with adaptive antennas is a technology offering the opportunity to increase the capacity of a cellular mobile network by reducing transmitted interference. This paper presents a system description of the first GSM prototype base station with adaptive antenna technology and the results of the first commercial field trials of adaptive antennas for GSM using adaptation in uplink and downlink. The performance tests were conducted in the city center of Giessen, north of Frankfurt. The prototype base stations were connected to the commercial GSM infrastructure of Mannesmann Mobilfunk´s D2 network. All measurement results are very positive and show the high potential of the adaptive antenna technology. A capacity increase of 120% has been achieved in the test scenario, which is in good agreement with expectations