Improving Capacity and Coverage for Multirate Soft Handoffs in WCDMA Cellular Systems

---------------------------------------------------------------------ABSTRACT----------------------------------------------------------------The paper proposes joint power and rate assignment algorithm (JPRA) to deal with multirate soft handoffs in mixed size Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) cellular systems. The JPRA algorithm is designed in a co-operative two-phased process. The JPRA algorithm contains a link proportional power allocation scheme and an evolutionary computing rate assignment method to determine an appropriate allocation of transmission power and service rate for multirate SHOs. It can achieve good power balancing among cells. LPPA is a multi-site transmission mechanism, which distributes the power in proportion to link qualities between a SHO user and all base transceiver stations (BTS) in its active set. ECRA method performs optimal rate allocation for multi-rate SHO users.