Experimental propagation analysis in a CDMA 1x macro cell

Similar to the procedure used for CDMA cell site optimization, a mobile handset was used to collect data regarding the signal quality received from a CDMA base station operating in the 800MHz band. This data was then analyzed to determine its usefulness in defining the radio channel. The study was motivated by the need to gather the data required for optimization of a CDMA I x cell site with the use of customer handsets rather than with customized test equipment. Over 50,000 valid measurements were made, which is enough to provide almost complete 2D coverage of the area. Handset location and signal strength were analyzed to recover information regarding mean path loss, fast fading, slow fading, 1 D autocorrelation, and 2D autocorrelation. Two and three dimensional plots were produced of these parameters. The results compared favourably with those obtained in previous studies.