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Abstract

The continuous increment of mobile communication subscribers, require a higher
capacity and spectrum efficiency of the cellular system especially in an urban area where the
traffic density is high. In order to accommodate the increasing number of subscribers, smart
antenna technology is used to improve system’s performance, which could increase the
number of call and data transmission as well as simplifying the networking management. The
basic principle of a smart antenna is to control and reduce the effect of interference to
provide the user with the highest quality of uplink and downlink signal. This can be achieved
by using narrow beams with signal processing capability at the base sites and to optimize its
radiation pattern, which automatically updated according to MS movement or as signals
conditions change. In this study, two types of smart antenna were considered, which are the
switched beam systems and adaptive antenna systems. The significant difference between
these two systems is from the beamforming point of view. The key part of this study is to
develop a simulator for adaptive antenna systems (AAS) and switched beam systems (SBS)
based on GSM 900 in order to determine the factors that could affect network’s quality and
capacity. Simulation results of different techniques are compared and the performance
evaluations of C/I are discussed. Results show that the AAS gives a better performance
compared to SBS, with average improvement of C/I around 5 to 10 dB.
Keywords: smart antenna, adaptive, switched beam,C/I

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