Performance of Different Adaptive Beamforming Concepts in Cellular UMTS-FDD Networks using Realistic Base Station Antenna Elements

The capacity of existing cellular UMTS networks can be significantly enhanced by the application of smart antennas at the base stations together with adaptive beamforming. Thereby, different beamforming strategies result in different network capacities. This contribution presents a comparison of three different beamforming strategies in a realistic dynamic scenario where the antenna array at the base stations consists of commercially available UMTS base station antennas. Hence, a reasonable analysis of the network capacity can be performed taking into account the impact of the antenna elements.