UE RX Diversity Field Tests in Hutchison3G's UMTS Network in Maidenhead

This paper describes the field tests to measure the UE receive diversity (RX Diversity) gain in Hutchison3G's UMTS network in Maidenhead, UK. The measurement tests were performed in Hutchison3G's UMTS network in Maidenhead with Motorola Mobile Devices Group, Chicago. During the field tests two Motorola handsets, A830 were used. One of them was modified to handle the dual-antenna reception and the other one was a standard handset. There are various publications which clearly show the performance improvements of UMTS terminals with two-antenna receive diversity through simulations [(N. Binucci and E. Hepasaydir, 2004), (J. Mattila et al., 2004), (M. Ventola et al., 2003)]. These studies offer a comprehensive picture of the UE Receive diversity gains of 4.0 dB - 5.5 dB when dual antenna reception is used in Rel99 radio features. The purpose of this study was to perform RX diversity measurements in the field to verify the Rel99 simulation results. The diversity gain measurements were carried out in a real 3G WCDMA network and they are the first of their kind presented in the literature to our knowledge.