Novel Adaptive Array Algorithms and Their Impact on Cellular System Capacity

This report focuses on the application of adaptive arrays to the Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) cellular systems. Adaptive arrays have been proposed as early as in the 1960s to improve the signal quality, but most of its applications were restricted to defense purposes. Recently, there has been a surge in interest of applying adaptive arrays for cellular systems. This work introduces new blind adaptive array algorithms for AMPS and CDMA signals. The theoretical capacity limit using an adaptive array at the base station for an AMPS cellular system is derived in this work. One of the significant contributions in this research is a macrocell channel model which provides angle-of-arrival (AOA) statistics of the multipath components. Practical issues involved in the implementation of an adaptive array are addressed and the author’s implementation of an 8-element adaptive array operating at 2.05 GHz is explained. This research also analyzes the capacity that can be offered by an adaptive array in a system where CDMA users co-exist with existing AMPS users. A novel cellular CDMA system which exploits adaptive arrays is introduced and the capacity offered by this system is compared with existing and other systems exploiting spatial dimension. Dedicated to Devadasse and Xaverine Petrus