Link-Level Comparison of IP-OFDMA (Mobile WiMAX) and UMTS HSDPA

Mobile WiMAX is currently aiming to become a member of the IMT-2000 family of systems. After this approval succeeds it may be operated in the same frequency bands as the former IMT-2000 systems. This condition raises questions about the differences between those systems, their advantages and their disadvantages. Within this paper we first make a comparative analysis identifying the similarities and differences with respect to the physical layer coding and modulation chain. By means of link-level simulations this paper tries to identify capacity boundaries using different receiver techniques. Results show that both systems in the analyzed configuration have similar efficiencies with respect to the theoretical limits if state of the art receivers are used.