Performance Analysis of UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA at the Cellular Level

The main purpose of this thesis was to analyse and compare UMTS HSDPA and HSUPA capacity and coverage. For this purpose, a single user model was developed for the calculation of the maximum cell radius. This model was adapted to a multiple users and multiple services scenario. The results from the single user model, as well as the ones from the multiple users simulator, were compared with measurements performed in both Optimus test plant and live network. The results from the single user model show that, in an indoor scenario, HSUPA can serve 1.22 Mbps up to 0.19 km, while HSDPA with 10 HSPDSCH codes can serve 6.0 Mbps up to 0.17 km. In a pedestrian environment, HSUPA can offer 1 Mbps up to 0.7 km, while at the same distance HSDPA can offer almost 3.0 Mbps. The results from the multiple users simulator show an average cell radius of 0.28 km and 0.25 km for HSDPA and HSUPA, respectively. For HSDPA, one obtains 2.39 Mbps for the Node B throughput, and an average throughput per user of 0.55 Mbps, while for HSUPA, one gets a Node B throughput of 0.62 Mbps, and 0.21 Mbps for the average user throughput.