A comparative study of predictive transmit power control schemes for S-UMTS

Transmit power control is indispensable in Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS/CDMA) based systems such as the Satellite Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (S-UMTS). Since S-UMTS aims at achieving close integration with the terrestrial component (T-UMTS) in its complementary role, it is going to implement closed-loop transmit power control (TPC) at a slow rate of once every frame. In addition, predictive schemes can be used to mitigate the effects of delay. In this regard, recursive-least-squares (RLS) and least-mean-square (LMS) algorithms are normally employed. The RLS algorithm has a higher convergence rate than the LMS algorithm: an attractive attribute when the fading process abruptly changes. The LMS algorithm, on the other hand, has better tracking property than the RLS algorithm: an attractive attribute when the changes in the fading process are persistently slow. However, the mobile satellite system channel exhibits both attributes: abrupt changes and slow drifts. In this paper, therefore, we compare the performance of predictive TPC based on the RLS and the LMS algorithms for S-UMTS with the conventional TPC as a reference. We demonstrate that the predictive TPC schemes perform better than the conventional TPC scheme. However, the performance gain achieved depends on the predictive algorithm used, the environment in which the user equipment is operating, and loop delays. We show that, in general, the LMS based predictive TPC offers better performance than the RLS based predictive TPC scheme in S-UMTS environment.