Performance of CDMA cellular system with effects of soft handover under log-normal shadow channels

Next generation wireless communication is based on a global system of fixed and wireless mobile services that are transportable across different network backbones, network service providers and network geographical boundaries. Although power control is essential for direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) cellular systems to overcome the near-far problem, one of the most important problems for the system is handover management and its effects on the system. This paper presents an approach to investigate the effects of soft handover and perfect power control on the forward link in a DS-CDMA cellular system. Especially, the relationships between the size of the handover zone and the capacity gain are evaluated under a log-normal shadow channel. The optimization of the maximum forward capacity is very necessary for matching the maximum size of the soft handover zone to the various system characteristics.