Analysis of CDMA range extension due to soft handoff

We provide an analysis of CDMA range extension due to soft handoff. A simulation of GSM hard handoff and CDMA soft handoff is presented. In these simulations, a collection of 90 second calls are tracked through the system and the margin required to meet a constant call reliability is determined. A comparison of these margins for both GSM and CDMA indicate that, under a variety of conditions, the shadow fade margin required by the GSM system is about 2.6-3.6 dB higher than that needed by the CDMA soft handoff.