Importance of MIMO technique for HSPA and LTE networks and emprical comparisons for a defined route

GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and EGPRS (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) is the first form of data services. 3GPP (3G Partnership Project) aimed to prepare standards for a 3G Mobile system based on evolved GSM when it was established in 1998. At last the first 3G/W-CDMA network was launched in May 2001. Developments continued with HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access) supporting high-speed data transmissions. To meet continiously increasing data demands, 3GPP initiated a roadmap to develop a new standard which is called as LTE (Long Term Evolution) in 2004. Now the world?s first commercialized LTE networks launched in Stockholm and Oslo in December 2009. One of the most important specification coming with HSPA and LTE standard is the usage of smart antennas. MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) which is called sometimes smart antenna, arises as a new technique that provides operators to increase their capacity with a cost-effective way. MIMO technique uses multiple antennas in receiver and transmitter. It has two modes; Diversity Space Time Coding and Spatial Multiplexing. In the first mode MIMO transmits the same data stream from two antennas but with different codes to improve cell coverage using Tx/Rx diversity. In the 2nd mode A different data stream is sent or received by each antenna, this led to double the amount of data for a given time. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the effect of MIMO technique on coverage and also throughput. At the end of the thesis, the importance of MIMO technique will have been experimented for LTE networks and it has been made comparisons with HSPA Dual Carrier technology which gives one of the best throughput values nowadays by using another drive test setup. Keywords: MIMO, LTE, 3GPP, HSPA