WCDMA - Cellular communication

[ElectricNature]

What would be the reason for having a limitted amount of slots available for users in WCDMA system?

A WCDMA system allows users to share the same bandwidth and transmit at the same time, so allegedly, there's no slots limit.
So what causes the restriction after all?

Thank you.

 

[WayneH]

If I understand correctly by what you're asking it's because of how the BTS is configured. Since channel elements are part of hardware that is licensed/purchased for capacity the BTS will have only as much as an engineer determines the site requires. This hardware is typically the most expensive per board in the BTS.

 

[ElectricNature]

Hi Wayne,
Thank you for your answer,
It's a nice welcome to the forum

I hope I could contribute to the forum from my knowledge.

Are you saying that each WCDMA channel is licensed to accommodate up to X users, so a BTS which comprises 3 WCDMA channels is licensed to accommodate up to 3X users?

Moreover, I assume that a WCDMA channel is licensed to accommodate more than a GSM channel, right?
(Is there any where to read about that topic of accommodation availability?)

Thank you very much.

 

[fineshot1]

Hi Wayne,
Thank you for your answer,
It's a nice welcome to the forum

I hope I could contribute to the forum from my knowledge.

Are you saying that each WCDMA channel is licensed to accommodate up to X users, so a BTS which comprises 3 WCDMA channels is licensed to accommodate up to 3X users?

Moreover, I assume that a WCDMA channel is licensed to accommodate more than a GSM channel, right?
(Is there any where to read about that topic of accommodation availability?)

Thank you very much.

See these references below - google can find you many more.

CDG : Technology : Welcome to the World of CDMA

CDG : Technology : Welcome to the World of CDMA

CDMA Tutorial

W-CDMA (UMTS) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What Wayne is saying is that each BTS site is configured differently due to
location capacity demand and cost of the WCDMA channel de-spreading
transceiver hardware which is very costly.

Example: cell site at an intersection in the middle no where. the demand
for simultainous conversations at this location is low so the cellular or pcs
provider will only equip the site for the normal low demand + slightly more
even though the true channel capacity is much higher. in the future the
channel capacity can be increased if need be for whatever reason.

cost vs demand is a driver for equipping a cell site with more capacity.

Edit: Perhaps the "limited amount of slots available" that you refer to
comes from the physical construction of the racks the equipment is
mounted in. Each transceiver plugs into a slot.