Waveform domain framework for capacity analysis of uplink WCDMA systems

Abstract

This paper investigates the capacity limit of an uplink WCDMA system considering a continuous-time waveform signal. Various realistic assumptions are incorporated into the problem, which make the study valuable for performance assessment of real cellular networks to identify potentials for performance improvements in practical receiver designs. An equivalent discrete-time channel model is derived based on sufficient statistics for optimal decoding of the transmitted messages. The capacity regions are then characterized using the equivalent channel considering both finite constellation and Gaussian distributed input signals. The capacity with sampling at the receiver is also provided to exemplify the performance loss due to a typical post-processing at the receiver. Moreover, we analyze the asymptotic capacity when the signal-to-noise ratio goes to infinity. The conditions to simultaneously achieve the individual capacities are derived, which reveal the impacts of signature waveform space, channel frequency selectivity and signal constellation on the system performance.