ANALYSIS OF A CDMA SOFT-HANDOFF ALGORITHM

This paper analyzes the performance of a soft-handoff algorithm of the type that has been proposed is IS-95 for a code-division multiple-acc ess (CDMA) system. While the analysis is stimulated by IS-95, the focu s is more on developing applicable analysis methodology rather than on specifically modeling the present IS-95 algorithm. In the soft-handof f scheme, multiple base stations are involved in the communication to and from one mobile station to improve the handoff performance on the boundaries between two base stations by providing channel diversity. O n the other hand, there are additional resources used during soft hand off. There is, this, a tradeoff between diversity advantage and resour ce utilization. The analysis is validated with stimulation. The analyt ical results can be used to gain insight and help select the appropria te handoff thresholds.