Uplink multiple access interference and capacity of WCDMA GEO satellite communication system

Wideband code division multiple access(WCDMA) geosynchronous(GEO) satellite system has been used for both military and commercial applications,the capacity of which is one of the key parameters.An interference model for the WCDMA GEO satellite communication system was developed to analyze the system capacity,namely the maximum acceptable number of users per cell in uplink.Accordingly,the statistical characteristics of uplink multiple access interference were investigated,while the influence of the amounts of cell in coverage and power control on the cell capacity was taken into account,leading to a numerical result of the capacity.The results show that the inter-cell interference mostly comes from the nearest cells,which is more severe compared with ground cellular systems.The system capacity is limited by the beam amount and the power control precision.The power control error should be maintained within 2 dB to obtain reasonable performance.