Deployment of adaptive antenna systems in microcells

Adaptive antennas are now regarded by many within the wireless communications industry as a core system component in future generation mobile networks. In order to promote European research and development in this strategic area, the Commission of the European Community has funded through the RACE and the ACTS programs the TSUNAMI consortium in order to further research technological advances for the next millennium. The focus of the TSUNAMI project is the demonstration of the space division multiple access (SDMA) technique embedded within a wireless communications system. To achieve this goal, the consortium developed state-of-the-art component technologies, conducted numerous spatial propagation trials and performed extensive system simulations. The objectives of the ACTS TSUNAMI project are summarised as follows: to develop a theoretical figure of merit for the adaptive antennas in microcellular environments with TDMA systems; examine the parameters which affect the performance of the adaptive antennas; a comparison of the simulation results with results from the microcellular field trial campaign with the TSUNAMI II testbed; and standards recommendations