Performance Comparison Between Distributed Antenna and Microcellular Systems

The microcellular system and distributed antenna system (DAS) are two promising systems for future high data rate wireless communications, since both systems can reduce the radio transmission distance between the transmitter and the receiver. This paper aims to compare the average spectrum efficiency and the cell edge spectrum efficiency between the two cellular systems in the downlink transmission. In order to achieve high spectrum efficiency, frequency reuse and/or spatial diversity are exploited in these two systems. The performances between the two cellular systems are theoretically compared in a network topology with seven macrocells, each of which has seven hexagonal sectors (or microcells). Moreover, the approach of antenna unit selection in the DAS for spatial diversity is presented. Numerical results show that the average spectrum efficiency per sector and the cell edge spectrum efficiency in the microcellular system are better than those in the DAS without frequency reuse. However, when the frequency reuse is considered in the DAS, the DAS outperforms the microcellular system in both of the average and cell edge spectrum efficiencies.