SDMA techniques for wireless ATM

The introduction of space-division multiple access techniques into wireless ATM systems is presented. The concepts are embedded in the framework of th e HIPERLAN/2 system, which is currently under standardization by the ETSI p roject BRAN. HIPERLAN/2 aims at the provision of broadband services with gu aranteed QoS. Originally started as a WATM standardization initiative, its scope has been broadened and now aims at core network independence. Essenti al system functions, such as scheduling algorithms and random access, are r eviewed in light of the spatial dimension. To give an impression of their p erformance, some key results are briefly discussed. Although adopted for HI PERLAN/2, the ideas are generally applicable and can be transferred to vari ous systems.